Jimmy, those ceremonies are vastly important to the schools (I'm only speaking from my knowlege of the colleges in my area). Some years back the college here tried to enforce the trousers and tie rules to try eliminating the wearing of jeans. So few students showed up for the ceremonies and so few rented the caps and gowns the administration nearly paniced. You could have heard crickets chirp. They gave it up deciding the traditional ceremony was more important than the dress code. The same thing would likely work in this case.