Graduation garb still available
Still haven't bought your cap and gown yet? There's still time to get them.
Actually, it's possible to purchase them the day of, just minutes before it's time to walk across the stage to get your degree.
Though graduation is still a few weeks away, some may be surprised that Barry Waters, director of the CMU Bookstore, and his staff have been selling caps and gowns since the graduation fair. But Waters said there is one key reason that they start selling them months before.
"That is to relieve pressure on us when graduation comes around, because at that time we're really concentrated on book buy backs," he said.
For those who have not yet bought their caps and gowns, for undergraduates, the cap, the gown and the tassel cost $35, while it cost masters degree recipients $70 for the hood, cap, gown and tassel.
Masters and undergraduate degree recipients get to keep their gown and they have up until the day of graduation to purchase them. Faculty and Ph.D. candidates will have to return their gowns and they do have a deadline.
"What they use are called rental gowns and they have to return them the day of," Waters said about the set that cost $49 to rent. "They would have to contact the office (of Undergraduate Academic Services), by next Monday (April, 27th). They get to keep the cap."
Faculty in need of a cap and gown will have to contact the office by April 24.
Waters said they have sold about 50 percent of what they have in stock, but also added that they will never run out, as they can order more at a moments notice.
"I would say that its been fifty, fifty relative the amount of what we have sold and what we've ordered. We sold a little less than 900 at grad fair and we sold about 500 online," Waters said. "We're about 14,000 right now and they can choose to have it shipped to them or pick them up."
Water said it is not surprising that some seniors are not going to take part in the ceremony.
"Not everybody walks," he said. "About 60 percent of undergraduates walk."
Kalamazoo Senior Laura Kragt is planning on being part of that 60 percent.
"I pre-ordered. I just have to pick it up either the day before or the day of," she said. "I think it is important for my (family) to see me graduate."
Those who still need their cap and gown can contact the bookstore at 989-774-4000 or through the Web site at cmubookstore.cmich.edu.
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