[scarvalho@ua.edu]

Hi April – at U of Alabama, we do hood the doctoral students at the main Commencement ceremony. The doctoral students process across the stage first, followed by masters and then bachelors students. We used to organize them by college but since covid we have not. When the doc students walk in, their mentor/hooder walks behind them and sits beside them. Once the names start being called, the doc students and their mentors file across the stage, stopping in the middle where the hooder climbs up on the box and hoods the student. During that moment the reader reads not only the student’s name but the dissertation director’s name also (who may or may not be the hooder). After all the doc students and their hooders have crossed the stage, the box is removed and the masters students begin filing across the stage. So the doc students do slow the ceremony down…but students and audience seem to enjoy the hooding! Let me know if further information would be helpful.