According to President Tom Gerety, only 59 seniors have selected paper diplomas, although only 83 people returned the graduation forms. This means that 360 students will receive sheepskin diplomas, many by default. "I am very surprised," said Gerety. "I really thought there would be more of a shift."

Noah T. Winer '01 said that he doubted that 360 students wanted sheepskin diplomas, but that few had the incentive to return the forms.

Seniors report that the form did not have a return address on it, which meant that students had to hand-deliver it to the registrar.

"I am actually impressed that many students did go through the effort," said Ned B. Friend '01. "It was not clear, it was not easy to do."

"People are really busy at this time of the year and may have forgotten to return the form, because [if their names were spelled correctly] they had almost no incentive to do so," Winer said.

"I think it's just like eating meat at Valentine. The important thing is that everyone has a choice and can make the one that's right for them," Andrew Erickson '01 said. "The option was there, people used it, and I think that's great."

"Nothing much changed from last year; the check box was not clearly delineated, " said Friend, who added that the primary purpose of the form was to check that the senior's name, major and hometown were printed properly.

"The problem with the system is that all non-voters are counted as being in support of sheepskin, so it inherently elects that option," Winer said.