The Council submit the following Grace to the Regent House. This Grace, unless it is withdrawn or a ballot is requested in accordance with the regulations for Graces of the Regent House (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 105), will be deemed to have been approved at 4 p.m. on Friday, 3 June 2005.
1. That, on the recommendation of the Senate-House Syndicate, the regulations for dress at graduation be amended by adding a new Regulation 9 so as to read:1
9. The Proctors shall have power, on request from a person who is to present a graduand for a degree, to grant the presenter or the graduand dispensation from Regulation 2 or 8 concerning dress at graduation as appropriate, and also, if necessary, to grant such a person dispensation from the regulations concerning headdresses; provided that the Proctors shall be satisfied in every case that there are reasonable grounds for granting such dispensation.
1 Statutes and Ordinances, p. 181. At a meeting earlier in the year, the Senate-House Syndicate considered the matter of dress at graduation. The Syndicate noted that the Proctors had on occasion approved, informally, variations in dress and have now proposed that the Proctors be given the formal power to exempt presenters or graduands, for good cause, from the regulations concerning dress at graduation and also, if required, from the regulations concerning Headdresses. In doing so the Syndicate noted that similar powers are now available to the Proctors in the University of Oxford.