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 other heraldic devices were used to avoid assigning duplicate hood linings to colleges and universities that had adopted the same school colors. Not long after Gwynedd Mercy College was founded in 1948, the IBAC assigned the college a hood lining with four chevrons – the only documented example of a hood using four chevrons – describing the college’s hood lining in a 1972 list as gold with four red chevrons. This heraldic design echoes Gwynedd Mercy’s school seal, which features alternating gold and red stripes.

To avoid obscuring any of these chevrons when the hood is folded and worn, each chevron should be one inch in width and one inch apart.