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 “parti per chevron” was also used quite frequently. Here the two school colors were placed one above the other in the hood lining, with the division between them following the shape of a chevron. Later the IBAC began to use a per reversed chevron division and a division per bar on rare occasions. Confusingly, in Intercollegiate Bureau lists from 1927 and 1948, a number of hoods were described as “[color] above [color]” or “[color] over [color]” which referred either to a hood lining divided per chevron, per reversed chevron, or per bar, and today it is not usually known which of these three patterns the Bureau intended to describe.

The IBAC assigned Columbia College a “purple above white” hood lining, according to lists published in 1927, 1948, and 1972. In these citations the Bureau did not define the heraldic division between the two colors, but fortunately a list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970) described Columbia College’s hood lining as purple above white, divided per chevron.