Spelling error appears on Medill School of Journalism diplomas

June 23, 2014

On Saturday, 's in Chicago issued diplomas which misspelled the word integrated in "Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications". Around 30 diplomas out of 250 distributed contained the spelling error, "itegrated". In an e-mail quoted by , department lecturer Desiree Hanford said, "The diplomas are issued by the university, so we will work with the [university] registrar's office Monday to provide new diplomas to these students".

 said some alumni had objected to the program's name change several years ago, and found the current situation amusing given their opposition to including integrated in the program's name.

The journalism program has a grading policy called the "Medill F", where assignments that contain an error such as having a spelling error result in the assignment being failed. Graduating student Kit Fox, according to the, said of the Medill F, "When as a freshman you hear about it for the first time, it sounds extremely harsh. It sounds almost unfair...And then you look at the stakes of what journalism is, and you realize it's much more forgiving than what happens in the real world." He also told, "Maybe it was just one last edit test for us grads, or just some fantastic irony".