ASK FATHER: Mortar board (cap) etiquette during academic Mass

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

What is the appropriate etiquette for those wearing academic dress during an OF Baccalaureate Mass? I understand that academic dress is not in any sense equivalent to the priestly garments, be it liturgical vestments or choir dress, despite academic dress deriving from the latter. I ask this because I will be reading the First Reading during this Mass. Perhaps I’m (stupidly) getting confused because academic dress is ceremonial in nature, but not liturgical in nature (unless of course, it is the academic dress of a cleric, which seems to be a long forgotten tradition since the 1970s).

Like I said, I feel like I may be blurring the lines here simply because academic dress derives from choir dress and there is such a thing as clerical choir dress that has elements of academic dress when necessary, but I am a layman. Should I assume the etiquette of any normal layman wearing a cap in church (thus taking it off when I enter) and should my female classmates leave their caps on? Do I leave it on when I read the First Reading, and should my female classmate who is reading the Second Reading leave hers on?

I haven’t given this much thought.  So…

… off the top of my head….

If the Blessed Sacrament is there, men should not wear caps.  However, if everyone else does, wear it.  Also, remove your cap to enter the sanctuary to read, genuflect, etc., and put it back on when you leave the sanctuary.   I think the females could leave their caps on.

Clerics should wear their house cassock, with a feraiuolo and academic biretta with proper color of trim.  I suppose they could substitute the academic hood.