Student upset diploma won’t say Castleton University
Dear Editor,
I’m a student who had started my college career at the school formerly known as Castleton University. When I first heard about the merger with the other schools to create what we all now know as Vermont State University, it’s safe to say I was apprehensive. If I’m being completely honest, I hadn’t heard of the other schools before coming here. Now, to further the integration, they aren’t allowing current students to get the diploma they may want. I started when Castleton was Castleton and I want my diploma to reflect that.
`The official email that went out from the university’s new interim president states that “We understand that there may have been previous communication that indicated graduates would receive diplomas from their respective legacy institutions. Unfortunately, this was an oversight, as the legacy institutions no longer exist. Consequently, it is not feasible for us to distribute official diplomas from these legacy institutions.”
In short, they told the students who attended before the merger that they would get the choice of which diploma each student wanted. This is now untrue, and students’ official diplomas will only read VTSU. They are giving students the choice to get a commemorative diploma, in other words something to put on a shelf, but it won’t have any actual value to the graduate.
In summary, the communication around this subject has been awful and I truly hope that the students can once again band together and change this action. If I had known about the merger before starting here, I probably wouldn’t have even come to Vermont. – Colby Tucker
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