The chevron was by far the most common heraldic division the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) employed to divide the two or three colors in an institution’s hood, but beginning in 1895 the “double chevron” was also used quite frequently. The typical width of a normal chevron was between three and four inches, but the double chevron pattern used two chevrons of about 1½ inches in width placed two inches apart so that the color of the hood lining showed between them.

The IBAC may have registered a hood lining pattern for Alfred University not long after the New York State Board of Regents chartered the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume in 1902 with instructions to “to maintain a register of statutes, codes and usages, designs and descriptions of the articles of academic costume and regalia with their correct colors, materials, qualities, sizes, proportions and the arrangement thereof”, particularly for colleges and universities in New York. Intercollegiate Bureau lists from 1927, 1948, 1969, and 1972 all described Alfred’s hood lining as purple with two old gold chevrons. The actual color of Alfred’s purple was royal purple, but unhelpfully the IBAC tended to abbreviate these citations in a way that obscured the actual shade of purple being described. Here the correct colors of royal purple and old gold have been used.