Surprise! You’ve graduated Student recieves degrees without applying

By Jamison Wagner, Staff Reporter
Students may find it difficult to get a degree in their majors, because of how at least one student so far has been graduated early with degrees that had not been applied for, nor was the student notified of graduating with 2 degrees and a certification, having nothing to do with her major until after graduation was over on May 5.
Emily Sarvis, Biology major and President of the Executive Council of Students said that one day after spring graduation she received an email for a post graduate survey. The email seemed strange to her since she had not applied to graduate, she said. Sarvis inquired with the records office, and the person she spoke to said she had in fact graduated as the records department had run a program that found she qualified to graduate under a different degree program than her major, so the school then graduated her without any notification, she said.
“This was after graduation so I lost my chance to walk the line. Not only did they not tell me but I then found out that I had been graduated with two associate’s degrees and one certificate,” she said.
Student records did not give her a clear answer as to why they did this in the first place, she said.
Repeated attempts to contact someone in CNM administration regarding this program have not been successful, resulting in referrals to individuals in the administration that have not responded to the Chronicle’s requests for information.
“I was considering filing an appeal on my financial aid because I have reached my maximum time frame but since I have now graduated with a degree the financial aid program will not grant my appeal,” Sarvis said.
There are a lot of scholarship programs out there that require a student not to have a degree and those programs are not an option either now, she said. Sarvis plans to transfer to UNM in the fall of 2014 and does not think this will affect her ability to do so but it will delay her timeframe since she now has to pay for classes and books for the rest of the year out of pocket, she said.
“I think what I am most upset about is that I never graduated from high school as I got my GED instead. I have never graduated from anything and CNM took that moment away from me and my family,” she said.
There is no information on cnm.edu with regards to this proactive graduation program, and instead, the website lays out the steps for a traditional application to graduate from CNM.
According to the CNM website, “Students must apply for graduation to receive a certificate or degree from CNM.”
The Graduation process stated on CNM’s website lists a three-step procedure that then breaks down to a total of 17 steps that must be completed in order for a student to graduate from CNM.
According to the website, students must: “Click the ‘Apply to Graduate’ link in the ‘Graduation and Change/Update Your Major’ channel of myCNM”, before the student can graduate.
There has been no explanation forthcoming from the administration in regards to the proactive graduation program. Any students that want more information about graduation will have to contact the student records department directly.