b'Doctors gowns are full, with bell-like sleeves. The front is bordered with velvet panelsthat enabled Clemson alumni to enroll would require strengthening the undergraduate cuand the sleeves are marked by three velvet bars. While some gowns are black with blackr riculum and courses to prevent knowledge gaps between the two. 2velvet, one variation is to replace black velvet with velvet in the discipline color. A secondOn March 14, 1945, President Poole received the Committees resolution requesting the variation is a colored gown usually of the universitys colors. appointment of a Dean of the Graduate School. It had been ascertained by that time that 19 All hoods specify the level of degree, the type of discipline studied and the awardingcourses could be offered immediately by the schools of agriculture, chemistry, engineering, institution. The width of the velvet trim conveys the degree. In addition, the degree is indi- textiles, and arts and sciences.cated by the color of the trim edging the hood to form the throat over the gown. The mostOn July 27, 1946, the Board of Trustees approved the Committees proposed graduate frequently seen color is dark blue, which designates the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree.program of study and, that fall, formally admitted the first class of students into the Gradu-Finally, the color of the hoods lining is specific to the awarding institution. The colors areate School. However, it would not be until June 15, 1951, that Herbert J. Webb, Chair of the displayed in combinations that are drawn from heraldry. Notice that the Clemson UniversityDepartment of Chemistry and Toxicology, was appointed as the first Dean of the Graduatehood is lined with purple through which is an orange chevron (a V). Although many com- School.binations are duplicated by dozens of institutions, Clemson is presently the only institutionMasterfully stewarded by President Poole himself and modeled initially after several with that registered combination of purple and orange. prestigious southern institutions, Clemsons graduate programs grew cautiously butThe The officers, trustees and honored guests wear academic, ecclesiastical or militaryofficers, trustees and honored guests wear academic, ecclesiastical or military regalia as set regalia as set forth by their professions. The president of Clemson University wears a purpleforth by their professions. The president of Clemson University wears a purple gown with gown with four velvet bars piped in orange and the University seal embroidered on thefour velvet bars piped in orange and the University seal embroidered on the panels. Each panels. Each trustee wears a similar gown with three velvet bars piped in orange for doctor- trustee wears a similar gown with three velvet bars piped in orange for doctorsteadily, intro-ates and an embroidered palmetto tree on each sleeve for those who do not hold doctorates.ducing the first doctoral degree, in plant pathology, in 1955. Today, the Graduate School Trustee hoods are either from Clemson or from the awarding school. proudly enrolls more than 5,800 graduate students and is committed to continued growth at both the masters and doctoral levels.A BRiEf HistoRy of GRaDuatE EDuCation 1. Holmes, A. and G. R. Sherrill. Thomas Green Clemson: His Life and Work. 1937, p. 129.anD thE GRaDuatE SChool at ClEMson UnivERsity 2. Clemson University Library System archives. Minutes of the Committee on Graduate Instruction, 1945-1953, p. 7.[Clemsons faculty] would engage in original and important research, by which knowledge would be increased, whilst the immediate objects . . . would be the diffusion of facts on all scientific subjects. It would be vain to attempt to fix a limit to the benefits that would thus be conferredupon mankind and their effects upon society . . . ThoMas GREEn ClEMson 1In conceptualizing a high seminary of learning for South Carolina, Thomas Green Clem-son knowingly set the stage for graduate education to emerge as an engine of economic development in the state. Graduate education quickly became synonymous with the appli-cation of theory to improving the practices of education and agriculture. The analysis of fertilizer, a contracted activity of the chemistry department that began in the late 1930s, would help restore depleted South Carolina soils, increase agricultural production, and spur a rapid development in opportunities for students at Clemson College to study beyond the baccalaureate degree.Graduate coursework initially responded to the needs of veterans and to the interests of teachers wanting to improve their classroom skills, but alsofrom its inceptionattracted international students attention. On June 3, 1924, Patrick Hobson of Sandy Springs, South Carolina, earned the first masters degree awarded at Clemson. He used his degree in voca-tional education to serve as a high school principal and later as superintendent of schools in York County, South Carolina and Mitchell County, North Carolina. The third graduate degree, a masters in textile industrial education awarded to Ko-Chia Li from Mukden, China, on June 1, 1926, initiated an enrollment trend that has catapulted China to its status as the number-one sending country for international graduatestudents for many years. Mr. Li returned to China and taught as a professor of textile engineering at Peking University, and served as head of the construction department in LiaoBei Province.From 1938 until 1945, all aspects of graduate education (courses, programs, policies, procedures, admission, and graduation) developed under the auspices of the Committee on Graduate Instruction, chaired by F. H. H. Calhoun, Dean of the School of Chemistry and Geology. Twice during these years, the Universitys attempts to formalize graduate educa-tion were thwarted because of the challenges to the Committee to maintain the necessary standards of quality. Clemson faculty recognized early that to establish a graduate program 6 7'