The senior class officers, the Office of the Chancellor and the University Book Store are giving students the opportunity to vote on new commencement robes for the spring 2017 commencement.
Students will wear the new robes for the next 10 years.
All three designs add the University of Wisconsin crest and include pops of color, breaking from the traditional all-black robes. The caps include the crest.
Scott Bembenek, senior class communications director, said up until this year, university students wore flat black robes, but he said the class officers looked at other universities and saw they individualized their robes.
“We wanted to get something that would separate us from other universities,” Bembenek said. “So when people saw us they would know it was the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”
Wednesday night, the senior class officers were outside the bookstore giving students an in-person look at the three different robe styles.
Brad Sheffer, a senior at UW, said he liked the color on the robes and the additional accents.
“You can feel like you’re actually celebrating with something that actually has color and more meaning to school,” Sheffer said.
Angelito Tenorio, a senior at UW, said the designs were better than the previous ones.
“I think spicing it up a little bit with the new design kinda embodies our class and our students here at UW–Madison,” Tenorio said.
Bembenek said the senior class officers wanted to get student opinions because they did not want to try to speak for the whole student body.
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Though they will be used for the first time in the spring, Bembenek said all students are welcome to vote.
“This was a decision that would affect students for years to come,” Bembenek said. “We wanted student involvement all the way through.”
Voting is open online until Nov. 11 at http://go.wisc.edu/capandgown.
