In an October 21, 2009 article in The Daily Campus titled “Diplomas return to graduation,” Brooks Powell wrote: “The temporary exclusion of the documents from graduation was due to several factors, including professors’ challenges with submitting grades to the registrar’s office in a timely manner and the subsequent processing required by the registrar to have diplomas printed and ready for distribution by commencement.”

This statement should have been attributed to comments made by Student Senate members. According to an e-mail from John Hall, SMU’s Executive Director of Enrollment Services & University Registrar:

“Last Spring, the University Registrar’s Office was a steady proponent of continuing to hand out diplomas on commencement day and was prepared to do so.  The May 2009 diplomas were in my office ready for distribution the week before commencement.  Furthermore, we felt that with only a few exceptions the grades of graduating students would be submitted by professors in a timely manner to allow the traditional clearance and distribution to occur.  We were disappointed when the decision was made to not hand out the diplomas.”

The Daily Campus has issued this statement as a clarification to the story. The staff apologizes for any confusion.