We, the students of the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences, demand the Division of the Social Sciences allow graduating students to wear Master’s hoods at graduation. This is a logistically uncomplicated demand, and this petition has several supporting claims.

1. The University of Chicago adorns Master’s graduates with hoods in most departments (e.g., Booth, Graham, Harris, Humanities, Law, SSAD). The University of Chicago considers our program to be an “intense, intellectually transformative one-year program”, yet despite being an accelerated program, MAPSS is not currently treated to be at the same caliber as other departments, as apparent through our lack of hood recognition at convocation. We, as MAPSS students, are aware of articles circulating that question the legitimacy of our one-year Master’s and whether the program itself prioritizes students sufficiently. To deny MAPSS graduates a Master’s graduation regalia—one that not only defines Master’s graduates across the country but across our university—lends credence to these claims. We are calling on the Department of the Social Sciences to take the stance that our degree program is indeed equally legitimate to any other Master’s degree at the university and allow us to wear our hood.
2. MAPSS graduates are in a unique position in which many of us are graduating one year after graduating undergrad. Unlike longer Master’s programs or a Ph.D., we are graduating just on the heels of our undergraduate commencement. Thus, MAPSS graduates deserve a physical marker that this graduation is a step beyond their last graduation–not a repeat.
3. Graduate regalia is not only meaningful in the context of a ceremony. For many students, it becomes a family heirloom and may re-emerge as their dress code for future student convocations if they pursue academia.
4. The MAPSS program has unused activities budgets that could easily assist students in purchasing a hood. This, combined with the high tuition MAPSS students pay with little to no aid, represents a context in which hoods ought to be afforded. 

          This demand is a minor one, but it rights a major wrong. MAPSS students should be afforded the same privileges as other Master’s graduates across the country, if only out of respect for our completion of an intensive program. We are calling on the Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago to allow students to purchase and wear Master’s hoods at commencement. We are willing to agree on a standard hood through either a third-party seller or the university’s bookstore, should time permit for its production before June 3rd, 2023. We are calling on the Division of the Social Sciences to respond to this petition by Tuesday, May 25 at 5:00pm to allow students adequate time to purchase our hoods.

With Respectful Urgency,
 

Abigail Spencer, on behalf of 

The Class of 2023 Graduates of the

Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences