Getting Graduates Their Diplomas and Covers
As with most other things this semester, commencement went virtual. Normally, the student employees in the Student Services team of the Office of the Registrar typically assemble 8,500 diploma covers each Spring semester for distribution at commencement events. Since our staff are working remotely and the Spring 2020 Commencement ceremony has been postponed, “stuffing” the diploma covers or presenting them to graduates in-person is yet another thing we are adjusting this semester.
Something not changing is that diplomas will be sent from our vendor, Paradigm; however, this year May/August graduates will also receive a diploma cover in the mail. The two items will be sent around the same time, but not together. We anticipate that degrees will begin being conferred in late May/early June and diplomas and diploma covers will begin arriving in mid-June. The timeline for receipt of the materials will vary by student since the process begins when we receive notification of degree completion from schools/colleges.
Our stock of red diploma covers is stored at UW–Madison Material Distribution Services (MDS). After coordination and collaboration by several offices (The Chancellor’s Office, Office of the Registrar, UW–Madison Material Distribution Services, and DoIT Digital Publishing & Printing Services), we have agreed upon a process by which MDS staff will assemble and ship the red diploma covers for May and August 2020 graduates; we anticipate that approximately 8,500 red diploma covers will be shipped. Law and School of Medicine and Public Health have elected to manage distribution to their students.
An added benefit to this agreement is that some MDS staff, who may have otherwise needed to be furloughed, will be able to work on the assembly. This semester may not have ended how we expected, but we can help return some normalcy by providing students with their hard earned diplomas and their covers.