As the seniors of the class of 2007 begin their final semester at Notre Dame, visions of having a diploma in hand are fast appro-aching. For the graduated class of 2006, however, the certificates verifying the completion of their undergraduate studies were slig-htly flawed.
The diplomas that were distributed for August 2005 and May 2006 contained a spelling error in the word "chairman."
"It was a transposition of two small letters under the signature of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, in the word 'chairman' ... you could hardly see it," Assistant Registrar David Kil said.
The error was first brought to the attention of the University after the May 2006 commencement ceremonies when a sibling of a graduate noticed the spelling mistake, Kil said.
"As soon as we found out about it, the Registrar's Office did not hesitate to rectify [the mistake]. It was in the students' interest that we acted with haste," Kil said.
Kil explained that although the error was hard to catch, the University felt that it was necessary to correct the mistake.
"You can hardly see the word 'chairman,' but we decided that if it was our child, we would not want it, so we went ahead and dealt with the company and had them replaced," Kil said.
Alumna Amelia Vogelheim, who graduated last May, said that she did not notice the spelling mistake until she received a notice from the University about the error.
"I was at home [when I received the notice], laughed and then immediately ran to my room to verify the misspelling," Vogelheim said.
According to Kil, Herff Jones - the company res-ponsible for printing the diplomas - replaced all of the defective diplomas by September 2006 following the commencement ceremonies.
"[Herff Jones] covered everything - the replacement, mailing and postage," Kil said.
Vogelheim explained that she was not surprised that the diplomas were replaced.
"It was probably the right thing to do. I was ... delighted that at no cost to myself, I received an extra diploma that for all intents and purposes was as good as the first. I suppose the other option was to have people request a new one free of charge," Vogelheim said.
Kil said that the Office of the Registrar has already checked the diplomas for Aug. 2006 and Jan. 2007 to ensure that the error is not repeated.
