There is a great op-ed in the NYT today about colleges and universities printing diplomas in Latin. I do not have one of the these, the University of Delaware and NYU are plain English folks. I have always found diplomas completely written in Latin to be a bit ridiculous. The example I always give is Kim’s masters diploma from Penn, she is a graduate of the prestigious Annenberg School of Communication and the diploma, written entirely in Latin, has the school names as ANNENBERGIUM. Come on folks, this a person’s name here.
Don’t let this post fool you, I am huge fan of pomp and circumstance especially around academic events. I am sitting in my office right now looking at my academic regalia hanging on the back of my door ready to go for Sunday’s commencement exercises here at LPS. But in the end, I completely agree with the author—Latin diplomas unnecessary!
