Baccalaureate Mass and Undergraduate Hooding Ceremony

Friday, May 10, 2013
4:30 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion

Students of all faiths and their families are invited and encouraged to participate in the Baccalaureate Mass. The mass is not a ticketed event, but reservations are required by May 3 to ensure the accommodation of all graduates and their guests.

Following the mass, bachelor degree candidates will be hooded.

Robing
All degree candidates are to wear their gowns for the Baccalaureate Mass. It is best not to wear your cap, as it interferes with the hooding. Please come dressed in your gown, as changing rooms are not available. Bachelor degree candidates are to bring their academic hoods and drape it over the left arm both during the processional and also immediately before being hooded.

Processional
All degree candidates must arrive to the Norman Worthington Conference Center by 3:45 p.m. Graduates will line up alphabetically by college and degree. Volunteer ushers will direct graduates into seats and organize the recessional. The processional into Marcus Pavilion begins at 4:25 p.m.

Receiving the hood
Traditionally, the hood is the colorful standard bearer of academic symbolism. The hood reveals the level of the degree, the academic field of learning in which the degree was earned, and the institution that conferred the degree.

Hoods earned at Saint Martin's are lined in red and white, the school colors.

Some English scholars claim that the hood is a vestige of the monastic hood or cowl.

Bachelor degree candidates are to drape the academic hood over the left arm. Upon exiting the row, the candidate will give the hood to the faculty marshal, who will then drape the hood over each bachelor degree candidate's head.

President's Reception
All graduates and their guests are welcome to attend a reception, hosted by Saint Martin's University President Roy F. Heynderickx, Ph.D., in the Norman Worthington Conference Center immediately following the Baccalaureate Mass.