Sub Fusc

Last Saturday was Matriculation here in Oxford, when new students were presented to the University by their colleges and halls to be added to the roll - the matricula - of students.

As this is a University ceremony those participating are required to dress in academic dress - the gown appropriate to their status, mortar board or ladies' cap and to wear sub-fusc, that is for men a version of clerical dress as formalised in the nineteenth century ( members of the University have still, in that respect, Benefit of Clergy ) and the female equivalent designed when women were admitted.

Last year whilst watching the new students going off to the Sheldonian I was startled to see some men wearing with their dark suits and white shirts a black bow tie rather than the traditional white one.

Subsequently I discovered this was a consequence of the passage by the University of gender equality regulations regarding sub fusc - as long as it is sub-fusc anyone can wear what they like.There is another blogger's comment on the change at:  
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/oxford-university-abolishes-gender.html
OUSU periodically tries to get rid of sub-fusc, but students always vote massively to retain it.

This did not accord with my idea of tradition ( no surprise there ) and as I recall it wearing a black bow tie ( rather than the usual black ribbon tie ) was the preserve of a certain type of lesbian who ends up as a college chaplain.

The black bow tie with sub-fusc on a man looks bad, very bad. He looks as if he is wandering back after an all night black tie event ( there is nothing wrong in that of course, if that is what you have been doing ) and not as someone standing on a venerable and clear tradition.

I suspect those men, and they are a small minority, are overseas graduates to whom the customs of Oxford have not been explained in advance and who don't know better or bother to find out.

Interestingly I have not seen black bow ties on examination candidates and I have not seen them being worn at graduation ceremonies.