The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned Cooper Union a three-color hood lining using color samples the school sent to the Bureau at some point before 1927; an IBAC list from that year said that Cooper Union had been assigned a lining pattern that was maroon over white with an orange chevron. Since metallic fabrics were not used, the Bureau often tried to replicate a particular school’s gold color by using orange or yellow satin – for Cooper Union it was orange.

By the time Kevin Sheard compiled his hood lining research for Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970), Cooper Union had dropped the white portion of this design to create a maroon lining with a gold chevron. This was unfortunately a duplication of the hood lining pattern the Bureau had already assigned Calvin College in Michigan during the 1930s or early 1940s.

A 1972 IBAC list erroneously stated that Cooper Union’s hood was “maroon above white”. Evidently the full description of the school’s hood (“maroon above, white below” with an orange chevron) had been mistakenly shortened in the Bureau’s records. 

Here the original three-color lining pattern the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume assigned to Cooper Union has been retained, but the color of the chevron has been corrected to gold.