Cox and Underwood get their doctoral degree formally conferred

Drs. Eddie Fletcher, William Underwood, Daniel Cox, and
Victor Hernandez. Go Bulls!

Tampa, FL - December 21, 2013. The Fall 2013 Commencement at the University of South Florida (USF) was held on December 14, 2013 at the USF Sun Dome. Commencement is a formal ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred on graduating students. At this commencement, close to 700 graduate students, including master and doctoral students, participated in the ceremony. Daniel Cox and William Underwood were two of them getting their Ph.D. in Career and Workforce Education formally conferred by President Judy Genshaft.

This ceremonial event has its roots in medieval Europe when faculties were organized into guilds. According to a description used to described the event at the University of California at Chico, during the 13th Century:

Members of the faculties were licensed to teach, and degrees were, in effect, the professional certifications giving them the guild status of a “master.” There was originally only one degree in European higher education, that of master. The baccalaureate, or bachelor’s degree, was simply a stage toward mastership and was awarded to a candidate who for three of four years had studies the prescribed texts in grammar, rhetoric, and logic and had successfully passed examinations held by his masters. The holder of the bachelor’s degree had thus completed the first stage of academic life and was enabled to proceed with a course of study for the degree of master. After completing those studies, he was examined by the chancellor’s board and by the faculty and, if successful, received a master’s degree, which admitted him into the teachers’ guild and was a certificate of fitness to teach at any university.

Following these historical roots, a special commencement is held annually at USF to formally confer degrees to graduate students only. Master students are called to the stage to be recognized individually wearing black robes representing their induction into the higher status. Doctoral students wear regalia with different colors representing their colleges and terminal degree and upon coming to the stage, their major professor(s) proceed to place the academic hood over the candidate’s head.

At this commencement, in his role of major professor, Dr. Victor Hernandez had the honor of hooding William Underwood, who defended his dissertation earlier in November. As co-major professor with Dr. Edward Fletcher, Dr. Hernandez shared the same honor of hooding Daniel Cox, who defended in November as well. Congratulations to Dr. Cox and Dr. Underwood!