Investiture Traditions

What is an investiture?

Investiture is the formal ceremony conferring the authority and symbols of the Office of the President on a new president. Usually held during the president’s first year in office, the ceremony has symbolized the pursuit of knowledge since the Middle Ages. Today, universities and colleges view investitures (sometimes called installations or inaugurations) as opportunities to welcome a new era and celebrate as a community.

Academic Regalia

Academic regalia worn during university and college ceremonies dates back to the Middle Ages. Students and monks wore them to keep warm in damp and drafty castles, churches and other halls of learning. In 1895, American institutions agreed on a standard form of academic dress to be worn at formal ceremonies, such as commencement or an investiture. The colorful assortment of caps, gowns and hoods symbolize the advanced degrees and the institutions of university presidents and their academic colleagues.

The University Mace

Derived from medieval weapons, the ceremonial mace acquired academic significance when Queen Elizabeth I presented a replica of her own royal mace to the University of Oxford in 1589. King Charles I made a similar gift to Cambridge University in 1625. 

Today the mace is symbolic of university authority, transcending the tenure of individual presidents. Protocol requires the use of the mace in the processional and recessional of major academic ceremonies. 

The Cal Poly Pomona mace was designed and constructed by Cal Poly Pomona art professors Walter S. Glaser and Karl E. Winchell and was first used during the investiture of Robert C. Kramer, who became president of the newly independent Cal Poly Pomona in 1967. 

The 4-foot long mace has a tapered shaft of California Walnut, a native California tree once abundant in the Pomona-San Gabriel area, and is topped by the five-branched tree pictured on the university seal. In the center is a sphere inscribed with the elliptical symbol of the technical age, the atom. The mace also bears the date 1938, the year when Cal Poly instruction began in Southern California. 

The University Medallion

The Cal Poly Pomona university medallion symbolizes the president’s authority, responsibilities and commitment to the community. During a presidential investiture ceremony, the medallion is conferred on the new president by the chancellor of the California State University system. 

The original Cal Poly Pomona medallion was designed by Cal Poly Pomona art faculty professors Walter S. Glaser and Karl E. Winchell. Cast in silver, the medallion featured the five-branch tree, representing the major disciplines of learning, basic to the curricula of the university: the arts, commerce, the humanities, the sciences and technology. The silver medallion was used by presidents Robert C. Kramer and Hugh O. La Bounty. 

In 1991, a new presidential medallion was created for the inauguration of President Bob Suzuki. Cast in bronze, the medallion featured the five-branched tree on the university seal in front of a stylized image of the CLA Building. Inscribed on the medallion is the University’s name and the date 1938, when Cal Poly Pomona’s instruction in Southern California began, on the Voorhis campus, near San Dimas. 

In 2016, a newly designed medallion will be bestowed on President Soraya M. Coley. Cast in bronze, it features the five-branched tree from the university seal and sprigs of laurel leaves, and is on a fleur-de-lis chain. The names of the past Cal Poly Pomona presidents and the years of their tenure are inscribed on the back.