Academic regalia of Columbia University

The development of Columbia's academic regalia has strongly influenced those of most universities in the United States.

The first recorded instance of Columbia students wearing academic dress was at the university's second commencement, in 1760.

The New-York Mercury reported that "the Students and Candidates dressed in their Gowns, and uncovered, proceeded to St. George’s Chapel..." Upon the accession of Columbia's second president, Myles Cooper, in 1763, academic dress became required for students, a regulation inspired by the rules of The Queen's College, Oxford, and which in part served to prevent students from visiting the gambling houses and brothels near Columbia's Park Place campus by making them easily identifiable in public.

[1]: 83  This made Columbia the second university in the United States to impose such a dress code on students, after Princeton.

Academic regalia would continue to be worn daily by students until the mid-19th century, when the custom began to fade.

Gowns were to be of "The form to be that commonly worn, with open sleeves..." and made of "worsted stuff or silk for ordinary wear.

After the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia was the second college to officially sanction the wearing of non-black robes as part of academic dress; however, the scarlet gown would be abandoned only five years later in 1892.

[1] In addition to their academic dress, students at Columbia attend commencement holding items that represent their respective schools.