A doctoral candidate receives their hood from their supervisor during the 2025 summer commencement ceremony. Credit: Sandra Fu | Managing Photo Editor
Commencement is the time-honored tradition, and spectacle, in which graduating master’s and Ph.D. students adorn themselves in robes and regalia to celebrate their achievements.?
Yet some don’t attend, not due to lack of interest but because the required clothing is too expensive.
On average, a full Ph.D. set costs just over $1,200, according to last year’s order form, with a Master’s not far behind. Though there are options to rent the ensemble at the university bookstore, the price is not disclosed on the commencement website.?
It is for this reason that the Council of Graduate Students created an Academic Regalia Lending Library, a system designed to distribute Ph.D. academic regalia to graduates at no cost.?
“For some, it’s one of the biggest things that you do in your entire life. A lot of us spend about 10 to 12 years in higher education, getting a Ph.D. by the end of the day,” said Sabrina Durso, an English doctoral student and president of the council. “But the thing is, if you’re not going into academia, if you’re not going to become a professor, you don’t need to buy it, you don’t want to have it forever. We were just trying to cut down the cost any way we can.”
Even considering the sacrifices made to earn a postgraduate degree, being able to attend commencement shouldn’t really be a question, said Jon Fritz, a fifth-year doctoral student in biophysics and the treasurer during the startup period of the library.
“There are a lot of things that people decide to sacrifice in order to go to grad school; there are things that they try to manage and balance, and it’s a commitment to doing research and investigations on one topic,” Fritz said. “A lot of times, a lot of other things are put to the side in order to do that. It’s important to celebrate the work that those students put in, and to try to remove barriers in order to celebrate that accomplishment.”
The project wasn’t as simple as it sounds. The idea began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has spent the better part of the last six years getting the project truly off the ground.?
Once legal contracts were written and agreements were made, the biggest hurdle was acquiring the robes. However, when the council told Senior Vice President of Student Life Melissa Shivers about the library, that element became more accessible.
“We told Dr. Shivers what was going on, and she thought it was so cool, [that] she donated $12,600 to the cause herself to buy even more regalia,” Durso said. “At the end of the day, we have about 36 sets of Ph.D. regalia to loan out to graduating seniors.”
With that addition, the library will now clothe around a third of an average graduating Ph.D. class, Durso said.??
“It’s about 150 Ph.D.s that are all in scarlet and gray robes,” Durso said. “You’re looking at close to a third of us in [the council who] bought regalia with the tams and the royal blue hoods and everything.”
Fritz said the growth of the library isn’t to go unnoticed either.
“The initial goal back in 2021 and 2022 was to clothe around 10 percent of the graduating class in a given semester in regalia loaned from [the council] and now, with support from different university offices, that’s risen to like 20 percent to 30 percent,” Fritz said. “It just speaks to the need for graduate students, and the fact that we’re trying to limit the financial barrier to be able to celebrate the success of the students.”
To rent a robe from the library, graduating seniors must have filled out the required forms by the March 6 deadline, according to the lending library’s page. They will then be placed in a raffle to determine who will receive regalia. This year, 67 people applied for regalia, Durso said.
More information on the lending library, how to apply and deadlines for the next cycle can be found on the website.
The article was updated on April 10 at 9:26 a.m. to correct John Fitz’s name.
