Ranchi, Feb. 10: The university has got its economics right.

Eager to cut costs wherever it can, Ranchi University has decided to hire black silk gowns, along with the hats, for Friday’s convocation at which President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will be the guest of honour. The convocation is being held after 18 years.

The gowns have been hired from one Deepak Jain, who runs an agency in Delhi that supplies robes to, among others, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The rental charge of each gown is Rs 40. The university, which is hiring around 1,000 outfits, will have to shell out only around Rs 40,000, and that includes the freight charge from Calcutta to Delhi. The gowns were to arrive later tonight.

Questions had been raised about the decision to hire the gowns when they could have been tailored locally. But vice-chancellor S.S. Kushwaha defended his decision and pointed to the low cost involved in the entire process.

Asked whether it would not have been wise for the university to get the gowns tailored so they could be used year after year, Kushwaha said it was a “nice idea”.

“But,” he added, “when a gown is cheaply available on rent why should we get them tailored? We discussed the issue threadbare before hiring, but it was not economical.”

Getting a gown stitched would have cost the university anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 per piece. That would have translated into around Rs 20 lakh. But by renting the gowns, the university has to spend only Rs 40,000. “Besides the tailoring charges,” pointed out Kushwaha, “maintenance of gowns would have been a problem.”

Referring to his Benares Hindu University experience, Kushwaha said the varsity has its own wardrobe of convocation cloaks, but when they are opened each year, scores are found to be damaged. Getting them repaired would cost more than the hiring charges. Even a cash-rich deemed university like BIT prefers to hire the convocation gowns, the vice-chancellor added.

Registrar L.N. Bhagat said the agency in Delhi had initially said it would despatch the gowns by today morning, but later they confirmed over the telephone that the outfits would reach the university by 9 pm through a freight service. “We wanted to distribute the gowns among officials and students by today evening, as we are going to hold a grand rehearsal tomorrow,” sources said.