Graduation

Today is graduation! Congratulations to all of our graduates! I thought this might be a fun time to talk about the doctoral hood and gown, which is called academic regalia. This originated in medieval Europe, where it was the dress for both faculty and students. Standards for academic costumes for colleges and universities in the United States were adopted in 1895. 

The gown for the doctoral degree has bell-shaped sleeves. Supplied with fasteners, the gown may be worn open or closed. The gown has velvet on the front and three bars of velvet across the sleeves. The hood worn for the doctoral degree has panels only at the sides and is 4 feet long.  

Hoods are lined with the official color or colors of the college or university conferring the degree. Walden University's color is green; therefore, each Walden hood has green in the middle of the hood. The binding or edging of the hood is velvet or velveteen and 5 inches wide for the doctoral degrees, respectively. The color should be indicative of the subject to which the degree pertains. In the case of the doctor of philosophy degree, dark blue represents the mastery of the discipline of learning and scholarship in any field that awarded this degree and is not intended to represent the field of philosophy. 

Picture yourself in your doctoral gown receiving your hood at graduation. I'll see you there! 

Next time I will post an updated index. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu