Nova PhDs

A forum for grads of Villanova's Philosophy PhD program

Cap and Gown
It's of course that time of the year. Unfortunately, I will not be able to do attend graduation at AU this year (my first) since my sister is graduating the very same day from Bryn Mawr. But I hae been thinking about this issue for a while. I really wish we had a proper cap and gown for our phd. Being the only doctoral program at Nova, we don't have our own school's colors, or gown. Other schools do. The generic cap and gown we got from Nova for graduation had one major virtue: it was free. But it is alrady falling apart.

Is there anyway we could start a tradition of cap and gowns? I was thinking about buying a typical philosophy phd online — with the blue stripes — to have for good, but it'd be nice to have a nova one. Any thoughts?

(By the way, Why is there a comment period? Is there dairy in comment for them to expire?)
Posted by Farhang Erfani on Monday May 8, 2006 at 8:16pm
J.C. Berendzen:
At least you got a free gown from Nova--anyone who graduated in my year or before was not given one...

I have been thinking about this issue as well, since we had graduation already (two Saturdays ago--it was so early because we ended early to help fit in our extra hurricane-inspired makeup semester). I was lazy and forgot to either buy or rent a gown--luckily, I was able to wear my girlfriend's (she has a JD from Tulane--JDs wear doctoral robes--and they give their students the cheap ones), although it barely came below my knees.

In any event, I figure I will buy one in the next year--I had planned on getting the PhD type (black w/blue velvet) that you mention, but had also thought about a navy blue gown...

p.s. As for the comment period, I think I can take care of that. Also, congratulations to your sister...
5.9.2006 11:46am
J.C. Berendzen:
I believe the commenting issue is fixed. If there is a post you want to comment on that is not open, let me know via email, and I can open it through the administrator's account.
5.9.2006 11:56am
Tim Kirk (mail):
I think the real news here is that Joe is dating an attorney.

I, too, have thought about our lame PhD gown situation. I'm certainly willing to help with efforts from on campus. I know that Univ of London robes are pink, which suits me well. We really should have something distinctive, however.
5.9.2006 3:37pm
J.C. Berendzen:
After a bit of incomplete research, I think one problem with the whole fancy-color robe scheme is that getting a decent other-than-black robe might be outrageously expensive...
5.9.2006 4:05pm
Farhang Erfani (mail):
Glad to hear from you both, and about Joe's girlfriend.

There is one Villanova cap. That's the one that Caputo, Doody and other higher ups wear. It has Villanova's colors. Is that restricted to people who have other people's names attached to their -- endowed chairs? Curious...

Either way, I expect it would not be cheap. But it is something we will wear every year and I prefer something both solid and also not just plain. Our hood is obviously different than other faculty; it'd be nice to have Nova colors for the gown. For the cap, could we have something rounder and not that cardboard pointy thing we have now?
5.9.2006 7:21pm
Chris Diehm (mail):
Hi all,

my two-cents worth is this: although I purchased the standard black-with-blue-velvet gown, I wish we had a dark blue gown with white trim and bars. This would look pretty sweet, and the tam could be in the dark blue, possibly with white accents. I think it would be expensive to get them, but if we plan on going to commencements regularly (we have two a year here), it might be worth it. I'm always so jealous of the cool-gown crew...
5.10.2006 1:29pm
J.C. Berendzen:
It turns out that there is actually the gown that Chris describes already in existence (did you all already know this?):
Nova Robe

Here is the problem, as I see it--this might be the robe (as Farhang mentions) that endowed chairs wear, or that honorary doctorate people wear. In this case, it might be kind of bogus for us to wear them.
5.10.2006 4:50pm
Farhang Erfani (mail):
Great find...I think that this is the one I had in mind as well. I am not sure that we would not be allowed to wear it. Maybe if the university officially allows us to? Tim kindly offered to do the local lobbying. I am imagine Carvalho would go for it too. I like this one because it is our colors. I think we should try to make this one our official one! With dark blue stripes of course... I did not see the price but as Chris said we would need them to last for a very long time.
5.11.2006 12:19am
Chris Diehm (mail):
We also have to be careful that this site actually is describing a university-sanctioned color scheme. I'm not sure about this, but I have the suspicion that some regalia manufacturers may claim to offer "school colors" without the official stamp of approval from the schools themselves. Perhaps Tim could find this out for us? Other than that, I'm with Farhang on this one...
5.11.2006 4:51pm
John Whitmire:
this is genius, because i've just been thinking about this, as well. (we have 3 ceremonies a year, but we switch off for them, so my first one is in august.) i think we are talking about 2 different robes, though -- the VU one is navy with white velvet stripes. do you all like that one? i'm not sure about it, myself -- i kind of like the plain black with navy stripes that chris mentions he got.

we don't have picture-posting capability here, do we? i have a picture of jack in that special navy gown with white velvet stripes (and black tam) from my commencement, but i don't have a personal website up to post it to -- if anyone has one that we can post it on for folks to take a look at, i'm happy to email it and you can link to it. just let me know.
5.12.2006 9:36am
John Whitmire:
on second look, i actually quite like the look of the navy gown indoors (it appears much deeper; outside the blue sometimes looks a bit washed out). i have a range of pictures from indoors and outdoors, including dr. dobbin's (which, i think, is the same as jack's except that it has 4 sleeve chevrons instead of 3), and one with jack and tom busch (for comparison). i'll send pics of several of these to whoever can post them somewhere for comparison. oh, and dobbin also has a navy blue tam rather than the black. both his and caputo's have the real metallic gold rather than the yellow tassle.

so, my considered opinion is that our hoods would look very nice with either the black gown with blue velvet, or the blue gown with white velvet.
5.12.2006 9:53am
J.C. Berendzen:
I am of the opinion that a navy blue robe with dark (PhD) blue velvet panels is the way to go. The white velvet panels will, in my opinion, look too "different" or "special" in an inappropriate way. That is just a gut feeling, though. I am waiting to hear what Tim will be told by people he chats up about this at Nova.

Oh, and as the new post shows, pics can be uploaded and posted.
5.12.2006 12:29pm
Chris Diehm (mail):
for what it's worth, i like the blue and white scheme. i wanna be caputo. just kidding, but i'm a little uneasy about the blue-on-blue idea--it seems like a fashion hate-crime (although it's better than the generic black, or even the blue-and-black).
5.12.2006 2:59pm
J.C. Berendzen:
Chris, do you remember that time you wore a tie (probably purchased at a thrift shop) with one of your plaid short-sleeved shirts? That was a fashion hate crime! I see nothing terribly wrong with the monochrome look (even if it is a bit too late 90s...).
5.12.2006 3:12pm
Chris Diehm (mail):
o.k., mr. "pocket square" + european-style button-down purchased at the trendiest boutique in spain... as i said, i'm cool with anything that gets away from the generic black or black-and-blue robes. is anyone at v.u. taking this question to the higher-ups?
5.12.2006 4:13pm