The college graduate is presented with a sheepskin to cover his intellectual nakedness.

Hutchins is mocking the idea that a diploma (traditionally written on parchment—"sheepskin") is proof of genuine learning. By calling it a covering for "intellectual nakedness," he suggests that some graduates leave college without the habits of mind, breadth of knowledge, or critical judgment that higher education claims to cultivate. The line fits Hutchins’s broader critique of credentialism and vocational drift in American universities: institutions may certify students rather than educate them. The epigram’s sting comes from reversing the diploma’s symbolic function—rather than displaying achievement, it disguises deficiency—pressing readers to distinguish formal qualification from real intellectual formation.