Convocation

This morning Owen and I went out to see the procession into Franklin and Marshall's opening Convocation. The procession was led by a group of international students carrying their countries' flags. Some of them were even wearing traditional clothes from their home countries as they marched in to the Olympic theme song. They were followed by other students and finally by the professors in all their regalia. They certainly were a colorful crowd with all styles and colors of gowns, hoods, mortar boards and tams. Doctoral robes are traditionally black (though some schools choose to have colored robes - this makes the parade even brighter to see) with billowed sleeves and velvet stripes along the sleeves and down the front. Abram is wearing a doctoral hood with orange and blue chevrons (the school colors of UVA) inside and dark blue trim, representing his area of study. (You can see these in the picture from the back.) Although it is traditional to wear dress clothes under academic regalia, we certainly saw a fair representation of sneakers and Birkenstocks peeking out from underneath all the fancy robes.