Good morning. It's Monday. Today we'll look at why some Barnard College diplomas were recently mailed to the wrong graduates. We'll also look at why more migrants are sleeping on city streets, in parks and on the subway.
After four years of grinding out papers, cramming for exams and paying more than $250,000 in tuition, graduates of a prestigious college expect something to show for it: diplomas with their names on it. But the diplomas that many 2024 graduates of Barnard College received carried someone else's name. Students who received the wrong diplomas said that the envelope from Barnard carried a graduate's name above a different graduate's address. The diploma inside — written in Latin and embossed with Barnard's official seal — carried the same name as the one on the envelope. The Postal Service went by the addresses. That all only compounded the confusion. Barnard had used the addresses of the graduates' parents. In the weeks since Barnard's commencement, on May 15 at Radio City Music Hall, many parents had been on the lookout for an envelope large enough to hold a diploma. "It's a very first-world problem to get the wrong diploma," said Sydney Gerlach, who was in New York when her mother in Colorado opened the envelope. "The fact that I was in a position where I could get a diploma from a really prestigious four-year college, I'm very privileged. But I was still annoyed because it was not the easiest four years. I started college during Covid, and it was hard to feel celebratory at graduation because of everything happening on campus." Barnard is across Broadway from Columbia University, where more than 200 students were arrested on two occasions in April after negotiations to remove a pro-Palestinian encampment reached an impasse. Barnard blamed the mix-up on a clerical error and apologized in emails to the graduates. A Barnard spokeswoman said in a statement that officials were "in touch with everyone who was affected to make things right." It is not clear how many of the 827 graduates in the Class of 2024 were sent diplomas inscribed with someone else's name. The mix-up, Gerlach said, "felt like a careless error from an administration that really let us down. We deserved better." Jennifer Simmons, the Barnard registrar, sent graduates two emails about the mistake. "I sincerely apologize for this," she said in the first, adding that her office was working to have new diplomas printed — and put in envelopes where the names matched the addresses. A second email from Simmons said that the new diplomas would be sent this week. The email said that the printing company was "expediting the process" but that "the distinctive embossing on the Barnard diploma takes additional time to produce." Simmons also wrote that the new diploma would come with a postage-paid return envelope. She asked the students to fold the incorrect diploma — which carried the signatures of Laura Ann Rosenbury, the president of Barnard, and Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University — and to mail it back to Barnard. But she said they could keep the blue folder that came with the first mailing. The folder, embossed with the Barnard seal, was "a nice way to preserve and protect the diploma," she said. Several students said they had discussed the mix-up in group chats with friends from the Class of 2024. "Everyone was trying to coordinate to get everyone else's diploma to the right person," said Magan Chin, who majored in neuroscience and behavior and is going to Cambridge University for graduate school. She said that she knew the person whose name was on the diploma sent to her and had snapped a photo. That person got someone else's diploma, not Chin's, she said. Ilana Cohen, a 2024 graduate now working in research at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, said that her mother in California had heard about the foul-up "through the grapevine of whatever parents' group she's a part of." That was before her mother reported receiving an envelope addressed to someone else. "I was hoping it would be someone I know," Cohen said, "but I didn't recognize the name." For students who are job-hunting — or going on to graduate school — diplomas have taken a back seat to transcripts as evidence that the degree on someone's résumé is real; for many graduates, a diploma is little more than something to be framed and put on a wall. One of Simmons's emails said that "if you have a time-sensitive need for proof of graduation before your correct diploma arrives," an unofficial transcript should suffice. But she added that her office could also provide a "degree verification letter." "It's nice to have a paper for four years, but I truly could care less," said another 2024 graduate, Lauren Unterberger. "I know I went to Barnard, I don't need a piece of paper to prove it, and I won't be putting any holes in my New York apartment walls. I won't be hanging it up." WEATHER Prepare for a chance of showers, with temperatures in the low 80s. The evening is mostly clear, with temperatures dropping to the mid-60s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect today. Suspended tomorrow (Tisha B'Av). The latest New York news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. More homeless migrants are sleeping on streets
A growing number of homeless migrants are sleeping on New York City streets. My colleagues Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Olivia Bensimon interviewed more than a dozen migrants who said they had been sleeping outside for up to two months. Some said they had been kicked out of the shelter system after the city began enforcing tighter time limits on stays in shelters in May. Others said they had chosen to brave the elements voluntarily. Some said they felt safer sleeping on the streets, or in parks or on the subway, than in shelters. There are encampments on Randall's Island, not far from the migrant shelter there, and under a highway overpass in Brooklyn, also near a migrant shelter. Luis and Olivia write that clusters where unsheltered migrants are camped out may be a sign that two of the city's most difficult challenges — a two-year influx of migrants and the longstanding issue of street homelessness — are becoming intertwined. Officials are attempting a delicate balancing act, urging migrants to leave the strained shelter system without increasing the homeless population on the streets. The new limits on shelter stays, which were intended to cut the time migrants spend in the shelter system to 30 or 60 days, have not led to the wave of evictions that some advocates for the homeless originally feared, because many migrants are being granted extensions. Many have remained in the system because the city recently determined that it cannot legally deny shelter to migrants who have applied for asylum or temporary protective status. Migrants who show that they have submitted asylum applications can stay in the shelter system indefinitely, while their cases wind through the courts, which can take years. METROPOLITAN DIARY This summer
Dear Diary: This summer I want to go to Ellis Island with my son to see our family name. I want to go with my father to Maria Hernandez Park, where he played stickball when he was younger. I want to walk the Ramble with friends visiting from out of town. And there are some things I want to do with you. I want to see the Vivian Maier show at Fotografiska before the museum moves. I want to watch "Cinema Paradiso" on a blanket at Bryant Park. I want to catch a Mets game from the nosebleed seats of Citi Field. I want to go to another concert at Forest Hills Stadium where we stand in the bass trap. I want to swim in the salt water, giggle and eye-roll and tell the best kind of bad jokes. I want to kiss more than last year, or the year before. And I'd like to have some kisses with you. This summer I want to sleep well and get stronger, be present enough to pray before every meal and joyful just where I am. And that joy, well, I want to share some of it with you. — Michelle Fiordaliso Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Barnard’s Diploma Mix-Up
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