Commencement at Hogwarts

This evening we held commencement exercises (the last of three today, really) for 2011 graduates in the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Engineering at Hogwarts, er, my university.

For which I had to shake out and iron my doctoral academic robes from where they'd lain in cold storage all year. We only use them on these occasions, though I'm sure if the rules were that we had to actually teach each class in our robes I would naturally get more use out of the outfit.

I actually like the striking red of my robes (University of Illinois at Chicago), and the deep blue velvet panel and bars on the sleeves. But the hat does absolutely nothing for my hair except squash it flat. I think that's why I look a tad grumpy in this photo.