New doctorate degrees were conferred today on about 300 UCLA graduates at the traditional doctoral hooding ceremony in Royce Hall. Cheering family and friends filled the auditorium to watch the ceremonial hooding of each graduate.

By academic tradition, graduates wear the hood color that signifies their field of learning. Those receiving a Ph.D. degree wear royal blue. Those in environmental science and engineering wear golden yellow, in education wear light blue, in music wear pink and in public health wear salmon pink.

This year’s class of new doctorates includes the first Ph.D. degrees earned by scholars in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies and the first graduate to be supported by the University of California’s initiative to support historically black colleges and universities.

While UCLA is celebrating its centennial year in 2019, this is not the 100th class of doctoral graduates. UCLA did not grant its first Ph.D. until 1938, when historian Kenneth P. Bailey walked the aisle in commencement ceremonies held at the Hollywood Bowl. The first woman to receive a Ph.D. was Marion Queal, a zoologist, who earned her doctorate in 1942. Commencement ceremonies her year were held in the campus open-air theater, which no longer exists.