Talk Description to Me
Talk Description to Me
Episode 112 - Graduation and Convocation
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The school year is wrapping up, and students everywhere are gleefully donning their caps and gowns, eager to graduate. This week, to honour the hard work and dedication of students who are Blind and Low Vision, Christine and JJ describe the visuals of convocation ceremonies and regalia. Congratulations, Class of '22!
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt
Christine Malec:Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt:And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to me, where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashed out in description rich conversations.
Christine Malec:It's the time of year for graduations. And in fact, a friend of mine is saying she's going to her stepdaughters graduation and I thought, Oh, how lovely. It's in person, because so many people missed out on that time honored tradition. And so we're going to talk about some of the visuals of graduation ceremonies and complications. And JJ, this came from a listener request.
JJ Hunt:Yes, this came from Mark, who's a friend of the show, a librarian at Laurier University. And Mark thought that doing an episode on complication and graduation ceremonies would be an excellent way to kind of recognize all the hard working blind students and their proud friends and family. So we thought that was a lovely sentiment. And so yeah, so we're gonna describe all the visuals of those ceremonies, the visuals of the regalia, you know, all the pomp and circumstance that comes with graduation and convocation ceremonies.
Christine Malec:Happy memories! A cap and gown is kind of the quintessential, you know, it's a it's almost like a meta, it's become a metaphor for achievement. And so shall we start there?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, I mean, the cap and gown is part of this regalia that that has serious traditions that go back a very long time, the intercollegiate code of academic costume weights. No, this is this is a link that Mark actually sent me is just a fantastic association. So this, okay, so intercollegiate code of academic costume actually dates back to 1895. And this is a unified semiotic system for caps, gowns and hoods. And the idea was that creating these specifics, creating specifics and instructions and and codifying regalia for caps gowns and hoods, would mean that any observer in the no could read a person's gowns, and understand the degrees that they held their alma mater, and any academic distinctions that they had achieved during their studies, which is pretty wild, like you can if you know what's what you can look at a person at a graduation ceremony, and you can tell everything about their studies, which is amazing.
Christine Malec:And yet no idea.
JJ Hunt:I mean, I kind of knew, but I didn't really know. I thought when Mark suggested this, this is going to be a fairly nice, easy episode, right? A little bit of research. But the decoding This clothing is incredible, the colors, the cuts of the sleeves, the type of stalls that are being worn, the hoods, all of these mean different specific things. And of course, there are regional differences, the British system, the American system, the Canadian system, the hybrids of all of these things, what I described here isn't necessarily going to be exactly what the regalia means in your location. An example of how these codes and traditions are put into place would be something like McGill University in Montreal degree holders at McGill follow the British tradition, but the university officials they follow something closer to like American tradition. So there are hybrids to these of course, I'm going to do my best to get all of this code right when I'm describing these images, but given how strict it is and how precise it is, I'm sure I'm going to get some details wrong. So want to start with like you say the cap and gown. Yeah, yeah. All right. So the cap is iconic, right? If you look up graduation clothing, the first image the icon, if you're looking for like a symbol to put on a on a sign or something like that, it's going to be the square cap. There are soft caps there are Tam's with four six sides. Those are relatively rare compared to the square mortar board cap that's far and away the most common the Square itself is fairly rigid. It each side of the square is between eight and a half and 12 inches long, depending on if it's for a kid or an adult. It sits on top of the head so this mortar board sits more or less flat on top of the head, and it's held in place with a short to have black fabric that's called a crown or a headband. And like I said, you know, the square sits fairly flat, maybe it's tipped up a bit in the front. It's worn in a diamond configuration. So in other words, the points of the square at the front and back and at the sides, not flat edges at the front, back and sides. And then there's the tassel. So the tassel is centered at the top of this rigid mortar board on a button, there's usually a button up there and the tassel is tied around the button, and then it hangs down. And this is like, like a thick bundle of threads, usually not woven, but it hangs down over the side and then it's frayed at the at the bottom. So it's a you know, like a little like a rope or a collection of threads that's then tied and frayed at the bottom, and it hangs down to the on the side of the hat to about chin length. Now, the intercollegiate code only permits a black tassel. But the American Council on Education Code states that the tassel may either be black, or be color appropriate to the subject. And there's a chart, every subject every academic subject has a different color associated with it. So agriculture is yellow, specifically, maize yellow is not to be confused with the social and natural sciences which are golden yellow, education is light blue dentistry is lilac journalism is crimson music is pink, physical therapy, sage green, yada, yada, yada, right. And before a bachelor student in their bachelor's program, so a student who has not yet received a degree before they are handed their first degree, Bachelor students at a convocation will wear their tassel on the right. And then once you have officially graduated, you can move the tassel to the left. Um, so if you're someone who's earning a second or third or fourth degree, you will arrive at your convocation with your tassel already on your left so that if it's on the right, you're indicating to everyone around that you have not yet officially received your you've not yet officially received your first degree. Now, I should note, I have read online that if you choose to wear a colored tassel to identify your subject area, you should only do so for a bachelor's degree. If you wear a colored tassel for a master's degree or a doctorate degree. I've read that it's considered gauche.
Christine Malec:Right?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, it's very specific. And we haven't even gotten into the gowns yet. So the academic gowns are based on the cloaks of clergy members who were teachers at medieval universities. So and the gowns are, again very specific. A bachelor's gown is different than a master's to get gown and which is different from a doctoral gown all different, and not surprisingly, you get more formal and more intricate, the gowns are more formal and intricate as you move up the academic ladder. So truly, by the time you become a university chancellor, or you know, the president of a university, you could easily hold court at any renaissance fair, like that's getting more and more elaborate and furred, trimmed, and wilder, more antiquated hats, no joke, they're huge. A bachelor's gown is long and black and pleated, generally goes down to boat you know, ankle mid calf length, that wide sleeves that go all the way to the to the wrist. It's a silky material, but not silk bachelors. They're not supposed to be wearing silk gowns. I think that's for masters and above, but it's like a silky material kind of often glossy and more like a polyester fabric really. And students are very strongly encouraged to zip them all the way up to the neck, especially for the ceremony. But a lot of students especially younger students in high school, you know, they're dressed up under there, they're wearing their beautiful professional looking dresses and their fine suits and so high school students will often unzipped to show off their duds underneath. But then for the ceremonies, they're encouraged to zip them all the way back up when they cross the stage. The Masters gown quite similar, but they have very strange sleeves. There's an extra panel of fabric that hangs down from the forearms. I've heard some people call them wizards sleeves. If you hold your arms straight out wearing a master's gown, the sleeves will hang down like flaps. And if you put your hands at your side, the flaps are really quite a bit longer than your hands. They really do extend quite long. I've seen some of the cuts that be really what it looks like is you take a big wide sleeve so it shut at the end. But instead of sewing it shut straight you sew it in in a wide arc, so like it kind of cuts in, and then there's like a slit halfway up the arm to allow the hand to come through. Oh, very odd. I'm not sure what the tradition is or how this came to be, but that's what the Masters gown looks like. And then the master students, they get hoods. hoods are not for most bachelor students only for master's students. But we're going to talk more about the hoods in just a minute. The doctorial gowns, these gowns are long, they usually have black as the base color. And they've got bell shaped sleeves, sometimes with elastics at the wrists, so they kind of billow out and then they come back in. Oh, and down the front of the gowns are two long panels or vertical stripes. And these match three horizontal stripes across the arms. And the stripes are traditionally velvet, in contrast with the silky gown. Now, I believe it's most common to wear a black robe with velvet stripes in the color of your academic discipline, just like with the tassels. But I have seen gowns where the discipline color is the is the color of the gown, and the stripes are black velvet. So yeah, I've seen it kind of flipped. And at the doctoral level, the gowns can be worn, either open or closed. So if open the long panels of velvet hang down like long lapels, but if closed, those panels of velvet kind of joined together, and it resembles one single wide panel down the front of the body.
Christine Malec:So what about the hoods, that's our new thing to me, I never never heard of that.
JJ Hunt:Yeah, so the academic hood. First off, it's not really a hood, like don't picture like a hood on a hoodie. It's not quite the same. It's really a loop of fabric, that you were kind of like a backwards necklace, or you wear it like a cape, but it's not attached to the gown. It's it's put on on top of it. And so it does hang down your back like a cave. But it loops around, sits on your collarbone and then loops back over the shoulders, and hangs down the back. Generally speaking, the hood is black on the outside, and has panels and stripes of colored fabric on the inside, often silk on the inside with velvet borders around the outside. So the colors and patterns represent the college or university that confers your degree. And the level of the degree. So I believe it is the velvet trim represents the discipline. And the silk lining represents the college or university. And you can't just like throw this on over your shoulders and let it hang down your back all willy nilly, you have to position it just so. So when you put it on, you have to drape it symmetrically with the inside opened up kind of like turned inside out at this low hanging loop on your back. And that so the colored panels on the inside create a very intentional pattern. This is a pattern that kind of like it's somewhere between the stripes on a bird's wings or the panel on a flag. It's really academic heraldry. Right. And if you have more than one advanced degree from more than one university, my understanding is that you should not wear two hoods. You either wear the hood of the highest degree that you have earned or I have read that some people have custom hoods made that incorporate the colors of both institutions. But I think that's a little bit you know, that's you are talking about heraldry, right. So if you create your own hood, you might you know, or those who are in power and you might find yourself... smited? Or smoted? Smitten? I don't know...
Christine Malec:Ha ha ha! Smote.
JJ Hunt:Ha ha. Smote? Do you smote? Heh heh.
Christine Malec:What is what is the stole?
JJ Hunt:So the stoles are interesting. There are stalls and honor cords which which graduates drape over their shoulders. Both of them are similar to like they're worn kind of like scarfs draped over the shoulders and down the lapels, but not tied. So like imagine wearing these things like a scarf that you've just draped over your shoulders and let hang down the sides. The soles are for recognizing achievements and honors. So the soles are like, like silk ties, but without a tapered end. So they both come. They you know, they come to a point it's like you know, maybe five inches across of silk fabric comes to a point at each end. You drape it across your shoulders and they it hangs down your lapels. And these are recognizing things like if you were a valedictorian, for example, then you might get a stole to represent that and then Knee honor cords are very similar in practice. But the material is different. The honor cords are like long lengths of braided cords with tassels at the ends. So it's quite similar in material to the tassel that you've got on your cap, except that it's really, really long and braided. And those you earned through academic achievement. So like a different level of GPA will get you a different colored chord. You can also earn honor chords by being part of a certain club or society. And you can wear multiple individual chords like if you are, you know, if you've got a high GPA and you're part of this club or this society, those bodies might give you multiple cords. Or what you can do is you can braid them all together. So you can take all the different colors and braid them together to make one honor cord. Kind of cool. There's also this really interesting thing I've never seen before, I'm not sure if this is more of an American tradition. But I've seen pattern to stoles being worn by black students and Latino students as a way of showing pride. So there's a stole called a Kente stole. It's based on hand woven patterns of, you know, hand weaving from from Ghana. And these often feature patterns and geometric shapes and golds and greens and blacks and reds. And then there's the Serape, which is a based on hand woven patterns found in Mexico. So Serape blankets are very, very common in Mexico, these hand woven blankets, you know, and the stalls have horizontal stripes in lots of different colors. So, you know, stacks of similarly colored pallets of you know, so you've got like blues and purples and grays or maybe there's a, there's a Serape stole in greens, and reds and whites, all different kinds. And because these aren't, these aren't academic, these are kind of pride fashion, the rules about them aren't as strict. So people make their own or, you know, there are companies you can go to online, and you can buy some of these. And they actually have sometimes sayings or phrases or things woven right into the material. So I've seen some that say class of 22, or whatever they say the name of the of the high school that you know that students go to, I've seen some that say black lives matter, some that say black girl magic, I've seen some that say Si Se Puede! which is Yes, we can! Really kind of cool to see these being used, again, not academic. So you see them more at a high school level and less at a college and university level, the rules are a little bit different there.
Christine Malec:judging by the apparel. What happens at the ceremony is probably quite circumscribed as well. Is that pretty pretty regimented, too?
JJ Hunt:Yeah. So I mean, lots of the elements of the commencement ceremonies are pretty standardized. I mean, it's obviously a little different place, the place. And some of the visuals are worth noting, for those who aren't taking in the ceremony visually. Obviously, if you're going to a commencement ceremony, it's it's very speech based. So a lot of it's going to be easily discernible, but there are some visuals that are kind of interesting. So I mean, first off a hall or a stadium or a field, a crowd of happy young people in matching academic robes and caps. It's really it's really quite lovely, right? That kind of uniformity in costume and regalia is really pleasing to look at right? It does, you look across a field of of students wearing the same outfit. And you do get that sense of belonging to an institution, right. So visually, that's pretty cool. The processional of students actually receiving their diplomas. That's kind of interesting, like you said, very formal, often rigidly so. So when and administrators will in advance instruct students on how to do this on how to go through all of these steps very, very precisely because, you know, in order to do it both efficiently and in a way that doesn't look awkward, if you get this crossing the stage handshake receiving diploma thing wrong, over and over and over again, the whole ceremony looks messy. So there's it's really prescribed so gently. A common way for this to happen is students all get up from their chairs, a full row at a time, and they've been seated alphabetically, then the whole row moves to the side of the stage. And one by one, the students step up onto the stage, and they will have a name card with them that they filled out themselves with their name exactly as they would like it read out, and they pass that to the official the marshal or something before they step onto the stage. And then that ensures that the correct name is read out when the student is walking across the stage. That isn't always the case. If the marshal is reading from a list. All you need is one person to be missed. thing, and then the whole list of goes wrong. So this like this name card system is really good for that. So the graduates name is read as they crossed the stage. And at the far side of the stage is the University President and the Chancellor or the principal depending on what level it's at. And they are waiting with the diploma. And this interaction, like I said, it's highly coordinated. It's different in COVID times, there were some very different procedures that went on. But traditionally, the recipient extends the right hand, and the Chancellor shakes hands with their right hand. And then while they're shaking hands, the chancellor extends their left hand, and they hand over the diploma. So perhaps it's a rolled and tied piece of paper, like a piece of paper tied with a ribbon or something, perhaps it's flat and in some kind of formal folder. But the recipient accepts that with the left hand and continues shaking hands with the right. And the reason you do this is because there's likely a photographer there, official or unofficial, who's snapping a photo of this moment. So you get the moment where you're shaking hands with the right receiving with the left. In some ceremonies, the graduate takes this opportunity, after the handshake to then move their tassel from right to left, sometimes the chancellor does it. Sometimes they don't do it at all, in this moment, they do it later, when the graduating class is back at their seats, that's actually much more common. But if you're earning an advanced degree, you step onto the stage with your hood draped over your arm. So it's not already on your, you know, on your body, it's not already draped over your shoulders. Instead, it's draped over your left arm with the velvet trim at the elbow. And then the graduate walks across the stage and takes that off of their arm and hands it to the person who's hurting them. And that official stands behind the graduate, maybe the graduate will have to crouch a little bit sometimes the official is given a small riser to stand on. And then the official loops the hood over the recipients head. So sometimes over the big wide mortar board, but sometimes the student takes off the mortar board so that that's a little bit more convenient than the official loops it over the head and positions it very precisely down the back making sure to turn it colored silk inside out to display the colors of the institution. And like I said, when properly turned inside out, there are the stripes on either side of the loop that should be symmetrical, they should come together in the middle and make a V shape at the bottom very precise. So then the graduate leaves the stage with their hood on displaying their you know their their colors at the back. So then the ceremony comes to an end. If the students have not already shifted their tassels from left to right, they are instructed to do so in person. So the chancellor or the president declares that all here have met all the requirements, yada yada, yada, they usually end with something like I present to you the graduating class of 2022. And then there's his great moment, lots of video footage of this stuff. Because every parent is snapping pictures and videos. And a lot of students within crowds now are now taking their own cell phone videos of these moments. So the chancellor declare, declares I present the classes with graduating class of 2022. And all the students kind of glance about it. Is this is this the moment is this the moment? Yes, they reach up they take off their caps and they toss them in the air. And all the caps fly in the air. The tassels are all flitting about and because of the rigid shape these can really fly right like they can really get up there and on everyone cheers. But my personal favorite moment because I have a somewhat perverse sense of humor is that in the next few minutes, which is not something that usually makes the highlight reel, when all these new graduates have thrown their hats in the air and they've landed somewhere in this crowd. All the graduates have to scramble to make sure they get their cap back. Because it's probably a rental don't want to get dinged for either not returning it or returning a damaged hat. So everyone like quickly gathers up their hats and you know, whatever and they put them back on Yeah, it's very fun moment.
Christine Malec:Now, because it's young people all of this rigidity is just asking to be toyed with, isn't it? You know, I don't have that much of imagination when it comes to this kind of thing but even ongoing Okay, somebody must be playing games with these traditions and having having at them in you know, what, in whatever spirit but playing around with them. So are you were you finding any examples of people playing fast and loose with some of this rigid formal stuff?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, absolutely. Especially at the high school level. So you know, 100 years ago cap and gown ceremonies were just for college and university graduates. A student that completed high school 100 years ago might have something like a picnic or a banquet You wouldn't have this kind of cap and gown ceremony. But these days, high schoolers have the formal graduation ceremonies. Kids from middle school, elementary school, kindergarten, even preschoolers or daycares have these kinds of ceremonies where little kids get dressed up in these outfits, these costumes. And yeah, when you get into the younger years, and it's not as of you know, it's not as official, it's not as formal. The trappings of formality are there, but not the rigid adherence to those traditions. So visually, the caps and gowns in high school and younger tend to be much more colorful, not black. So dark blue is a color that's often used. But a lot of schools, especially high schools will choose school colors. So orange, red, yellow, sky blue, really, you name it, but it's always uniform within the school. So all of the students will still be wearing the same color. But then yeah, the high school students, they like to kind of muck around a little bit. So yeah, you're seeing like tick tock and Instagram is full of like teenagers snapping selfies in the middle of the ceremony. So like, including the very moment when they're accepting the diplomas, shook hands with the right grab with the left, and then they pull their hand away from from the chancellor, reach into the pocket, pull out a cell phone, hold it high in the air and take a picture of themselves. Yeah, so you get that kind of thing. But the real kind of personalization that I've seen comes with the mortarboard cap. So I've seen high some high schoolers who decorate who personalize their caps the top flat surface of the cap with messages and sayings they paint on them. Some turn them into like the pages of a scrapbook like a really fancy scrapbook or a motivational poster. I don't know like I've seen caps that people have put enlarged photos on them or like the their yearbook photo or a photo of their you know, group of friends or whatever or collages of with you know, pictures from all of their friends and clubs and whatnot. I've seen people who take the top of the motherboard and kind of paste it with like a like a wallpaper basically, it's like you can put patterned fabric or really lovely fine paper on there. I've seen people write phrases on them like this is where the motivational poster stuff comes from. So things like so the adventure begins, be the change you wish to see. Oh the Places You'll Go like inspirational quotes and inside jokes that obviously I didn't get you know, like like the kind of yearbook quote that you would write someone's book people put those on their hats. Sometimes they're done with like, stencils and stickers. If you go to a craft supply store, you can get stencils letter by letter. So these can end up looking really professional. But some people just like take glitter pens and fabric paint and they glue plastic flowers and crafting supplies onto them like sometimes they get really thick because they're they're like fake flowers and you know trim on them, they end up looking like highly decorated cakes frosted and sometimes they look like the chalkboard outside of a very Frou Frou coffee shop, you know, fancy lettering? Yeah, I have a feeling that good folks at the International registry for academic costume might have opinions about some of this personalization of the very traditional mortarboard
Christine Malec:And given the popularity of social media, did you troll around there to find out what what are the young people doing graduation tables?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, I took a look on Instagram and took a look at some tick tock compilation videos that were on YouTube. And one of the things that is done often on Tiktok and instagram videos, I probably I would embarrass myself if I called it a trend, because that's probably just how these videos are put together. But they are spliced together with you know, lots of short clips and editing tricks like match cuts to make really interesting videos. So a match cut is an edit that uses an element from one shot to transition into another shot. So like heavy Tik Tok users have mastered this technique and make some pretty cool videos and there's lots of them that are kind of graduation themed So an example would be a young person standing in front of their camera dressed in a school hoodie and jeans, you know, no makeup on or anything but looking directly at us like Jorrit looking directly into their computer or phone cameras smiling and posing a little bit and then they snap their fingers and suddenly they have on a mortar board hat in an academic gown and all of their makeup. Probably matching this if it's on you know on tick tock they match it with a kind of inspirational pop song like you know, I was young or here's here's my life moving forward, whatever the song is Do something you know, inspirational. A lot of high schoolers filming tick tock videos during the hat toss, like we said the selfie videos also this other kind of match shot thing that I saw that I thought was really cool. A young woman cut together this anyways, we may be 15 second long video, and it starts with her walking across the screen from left to right wearing her graduation gown. And first she walks past the front door of a preschool. And then when she reaches the end of the screen, there's a quick match cut. And so she jumps back to the left and continues walking from left to right in front of an elementary school. Another match cut, she jumps to the left walks past her middle school than her high school and it's all totally seamless. So her pace her gait. Everything is totally seamless. And then the last cut of course is her continuing her stride all the way across the stage at her convocation when she receives her diploma. Nicely done.
Christine Malec:Oh lovely. Well congratulations to anyone for whom this is current if you're graduating or supporting someone who is, congratulations! We love making this podcast. If you love hearing it, perhaps you'll consider supporting its creation and development by becoming a patron. We've set up a Patreon page to help cover the costs of putting the show together. You can contribute as a listener or as a sponsor to help ensure that accessible and entertaining journalism continues to reach our community. Visit patreon.com/talk Description To me that's pa t ar e o n.com/talk description to me have feedback or suggestions of what you'd like to hear about here's how to get in touch with us. Our email address is top description to me@gmail.com. Our Facebook page is called Talk description to me. Our website is talk description to me.com and you can follow us on Twitter at talk Description.