Cap & Gown

To participate in commencement, students must adhere to the following requirements. Please review all information carefully.

Step 1: Graduation Application

• Submit or verify your graduation application in jwuLink (Home tab > Graduation & Commencement) to confirm how you want your name printed on your diploma and where you want it mailed.

Step 2: Exit Counseling

• Exit counseling is required of all students who have student loans (or who are attending commencement).
• Bring the name, address and telephone number for two personal references (N/A if you have no student loans).
• Allow approximately 20 minutes and arrive during any of the posted times; appointments are not needed.

Step 3: Cap & Gown Form

• You will receive your cap & gown form after you complete exit counseling.
• Promptly bring your form to the appropriate campus bookstore to pick up your cap and gown.
• Culinary, Doctoral and Graduate students should go to the Harborside Bookstore.
• Arts & Sciences, Business and Technology students should go to the Downcity Bookstore.
• Copies will not be accepted.

Step 4: Clothing & Attire

• You are expected to wear the full academic dress (cap, gown, and hood) appropriate to your degree.
• Avoid ironing your gown; instead, place it in a dryer for a few minutes and place on a hanger.
• Place the tassel on the front, right side of the cap.
• Both the cap and gown should be worn at all times by women; men remove their caps for the national anthem, the invocation and the benediction, but wear them at all other times throughout the ceremony.
• Attire traditionally worn by men: suit or jacket and slacks, plain tie and shoes.
• Attire traditionally worn by women: dress or skirt and blouse and comfortable shoes.
• Graduates who are in the military are permitted to wear appropriate military dress uniforms.

Step 5: Academic Hood (N/A to associate degree recipients)

• Bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree recipients also wear an academic hood.
• Hoods are placed over the shoulders; there should be no color visible at first.
• Once the hood is in place, unfold it slightly to expose the colors.
• Women may choose to fasten the hood at the shoulders with safety pins for more comfort; men should place the neckband of the hood over the tie.

A Note on Traditions
The tradition of wearing distinctive dress for academic ceremonies dates back to the Middle Ages, when woolen costumes were worn mainly by nobility and clergy. Colors were added during the Renaissance, particularly at Oxford and Cambridge where scarlet hoods were worn by doctors.

Today, academic costumes are usually worn in the United States by people participating in academic ceremonies. The academic dress at Johnson & Wales meets the standards set by the intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume. All students wear the standard black gown and square "Oxford cap." The faculty and platform party will be wearing regalia representative of the degrees they possess. The president and other officials of the university will wear caps and gowns designed exclusively for JWU. The honorary degree recipients will wear the academic costume and hood appropriate for the degree being conferred upon them.