University spelled 'Board of trustees' incorrectly in its diplomas for 6 years

By Megan Cain and Saeed Ahmed, CNN

(CNN) -- Colorado Mesa University is issuing two diplomas for the price of one. The catch? The first one was signed by the chair of CMU's "Coard of Trustees."

The embarrassing typo lingered in the bottom left corner of nearly 9,200 diplomas for six years -- until outgoing school newspaper editor Alec Williams caught it this month.

Williams was looking at a photo of a past graduate's diploma online. At first, he said, he wasn't sure if what he saw was actually a mistake or just part of the classic Old English font used on diplomas.

Hey, @ColoradoMesaU class of 2018. Multiple diplomas, like mine, have the same spelling mistake. “Coard of Trustees.” CMU is sending me a replacement but they didn’t say if they’ll do it for all graduates. Seems like you gotta complain if you want your $30K diploma spelled right. pic.twitter.com/iAfLTyuGZf

— Alec Williams (@alecmwilli) August 6, 2018

"If they're going to do anything right, they need to make sure -- at the very least -- the non-name related words are spelled correctly," Williams told CNN.

The university has already created a website to fulfill diploma requests with the goal of having each diploma reprinted and mailed out within two days. Each reissued diploma will cost the university about $5.

"A diploma symbolizes tremendous hard work and investment made by students in their education," the school told CNN in a statement.

So, let this be a lesson for college graduates everywhere: Make sure to triple-check your diplomas, Blass of 2018.

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