Doctoral Limbo

This past weekend was graduation. One of my doctoral students was recieving his degree, so I went to the hooding ceremony. (I "adopted" this student last year after his advisor left for another university.) It was the first time I'd worn the academic regalia (referred to by my colleagues as a "shroud" and a "nightgown") since I received my own degree. It was fun; I like the pomp and circumstance, and it seems that when people have put in as much work as new Ph.D.s have, it's worth getting dressed up and formally celebrating the occasion.

The "hood" is almost more like a scarf; in the pictures, it's the material that the students have draped over their arms. The dark blue represents the doctoral degree, and the other colors represent either the university or the discipline. In the actual hooding ceremony (as it's done here), the student and advisor go up on the stage, and the advisor and the provost place the hood over the student's head and around their shoulders, thus symbolically ushering the graduate into the community of scholars. But keep in mind that the graduates are already wearing caps, so getting the hood on properly is a bit of a trick, even with two people doing it! I was impressed that out of the couple hundred hoodings, only three or four advisors managed to knock their advisee's caps off in this regalia limbo. (And no, I was not one of those three or four! I told my student that I was glad he wasn't any taller.)