In Room 140 of U. of I.'s Admissions and Records building there sits a filing cabinet that serves as a glorified lost and found. It contains manila envelopes stuffed with standard-sized pieces of paper that are infused with meaning, but have been forgotten over the course of time.
The several hundred unclaimed diplomas in Fred Christensen's office gather dust, day after day. The oldest dates back to 1949, says Christensen, the records officer in the graduation unit of the Office of Admissions and Records.
"The diplomas are still there waiting for their proper owners to identity themselves and claim them," says Christensen, who added he doesn't know exactly how many are in the file because he hasn't had time to count them.
Most of the diplomas found their way into the cabinet because they were returned by the postal service. The University mails out more than 10,000 diplomas each year, the bulk of them following the May commencement period. Hundreds bounce back because of undeliverable addresses.
More often than not, graduates will call the Admission and Records Office to locate the diploma, but others forget or simply do not care about it.
A couple hundred of the diplomas collected in the cabinet for another reason. At some point during the 1950s and continuing into the 1960s, the University implemented a policy where graduates with local Champaign County addresses would have to pick up their diplomas in person. Many never appeared.
Christensen says the University has no plans to destroy the unclaimed diplomas. He welcomes inquiries, and will send out a diploma to its rightful owner upon identity confirmation. The office will mail a diploma to the next of kin of a deceased alumnus, if provided the proper documentation.
"They don't take up that much room, and I would not want them destroyed," he says. "One file cabinet worth of space is a small price to pay for taking care of these people who call in to find out whatever happened to their diploma."
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