Regalia

A cap and gown are required for participation in the commencement ceremony. Caps are worn with a colored tassel indicating the degree being awarded. Master’s candidates will also receive a hood, with the color indicating field of study.

Degree designation

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree

Doctoral and specialist degree

Regalia history

The use of academic dress stems from costumes worn in universities in the 14th and 15th centuries, particularly at Cambridge and Oxford in England. Since colonial times, it has been worn in the United States and was standardized by an Intercollegiate Code in 1895.

Gowns

The major distinguishing characteristics of the gowns are the sleeves, styled in the following fashions.

• Bachelor, long pointed
• Master, oblong
• Doctor and specialist, bell-shaped

The doctor’s gown has a velvet collar, facing and three bars on the sleeves. The specialist’s gown differs from a doctor’s in that it has no sleeve bars.

Masters, specialists, and doctors wear hoods lined with the official colors of the university from which the degree is granted. They vary in size and shape to indicate the several degrees. The doctor’s hood is the largest and most lavishly decorated. The color of the velvet that circles the opening of the hood shows the degree earned: light blue for a doctor of education, dark blue for a doctor of philosophy and peacock blue for a doctor of public administration.

Caps and tassels

Caps are mortarboards with the tassel worn over the left front quadrant. The tassel’s color indicates the academic program area.