@*#$%* Harvard

Thanks to all those who emailed and commented on my academic regalia question. I came home from class today and called the Coop to confirm with them that the hood color was incorrect. However, I could never actually get anyone in the appropriate department to pick up the phone, so I had to schlep over to Harvard Square with the whole ensemble stuffed in a bag.

Apparently the source of the problem was their out of date record book on college and university colors. This tome, printed on wide green and white striped sheets of paper on a dot matrix printer, listed Claremont Men's College and Claremont College (this one, maybe?) but no Claremont McKenna College. You'd think that they would have updated this book in the 20-30 years since my college became coeducational and changed its name, but I suppose this is a bit much to ask. Since my college wasn't listed and they could tell from my name I wasn't a man, they just ignored the middle word and gave me a Claremont College purple B.A. hood.

First they tried to fob a plain maroon hood off on me. However, I realized that I would be very sad to not wear my school colors when everyone else was (especially since I'm the only CMCer in this year's law school class) and would be seriously embarrassed when someone came up and exclaimed, "Wow, Amber, I didn't realize you went to the University of Chicago!" So I went back and very politely asked if they could order the appropriate hood, which they then admitted they could do.

This may tie with the time Harvard Student Loan Services sent me another person's promissory notes for sheer staggering incompetence.