They have worked hard for four long years, sweating through
finals, struggling to stay awake during lectures, and scrambling to
turn in their term papers on time.
They have worked hard, and it all comes to an end, at least
symbolically, this week at graduation with the receipt of a piece
of paper ““ their diploma ““ which this year has a unique
feature.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature now appears on the
diplomas of University of California and California State
University graduates.
Though this is customary for California governors,
Schwarzenegger’s celebrity status gives the signature a new
significance.
Though not an actual signature, as it will be appearing on about
125,000 diplomas, it is still the name of the Hollywood actor and
producer, and students have mixed feelings about the signature on
their certificates.
“I’m proud to have the governor’s name on my
diploma, regardless of who it is,” said Sarah Sandauer, a
fourth-year psychology student. “The pride comes from the
diploma and the fact that UCLA is printed on it.
“If anything, it adds a sense of humor to it.”
Mark Sychay, a business graduate student, said it didn’t
matter to him who signed his diploma because its significance would
not be affected.
“I would be fine with it,” Sychay said. “He
seems like a good governor.”
But there are a few students who do not appreciate the addition
to their diploma, especially based on the events of the past
year.
It has been a year of budget cuts to university funds,
increasing student fees and debates over enrollment caps. While
many people blame the struggling California economy for the cuts,
others blame the governor.
Because of the tight budget throughout the state, the government
has scaled back funds to various programs at the UC, including the
withdrawal of all funds for outreach programs.
“It’s a beautiful irony,” said Leticia
Guillén, a fourth-year psychology student.
“(Schwarzenegger’s) cutting the budget for the Career
Based Outreach Program, a program I have worked on the past
years.”
She said that, if anything, the signature would seem more like a
downgrade from previous governors.
Economic difficulties cannot necessarily be attributed to
Schwarzenegger, as they have been ongoing since Gray Davis was
governor, who had his term cut short by last year’s recall
election.
But beyond sentimental value or, in Guillén’s case,
lack thereof, the celebrity governor’s signature is not worth
more to autograph collectors than the signature of any other
California governor because it is simply a duplication of the
original.
Autograph collectors are only interested in original autographs,
and even if all 125,000 diplomas were individually signed, their
value would be depleted because there would be so many of them.
There are a variety of ways the signatures can be reproduced.
For the diplomas, a copy of Schwarzenegger’s signature was
sent to the UC as a computer file to be printed on the
diplomas.
But there are many methods, including laser printers and
Autopens ““ machines programmed to sign a person’s name
in pen ““ and it is very difficult to differentiate between
Autopen signatures and real signatures.
“Nixon had 12 different Autopens,” said Michael
Hecht, president of the Universal Autograph Collector’s Club.
“It is worth much less … but the only way to tell it is not
the original is to know the pattern.”
Because duplications can be close to the originals, signatures
must be authenticated, and collectors are only looking for the real
thing.
“Right now, even a diploma with Reagan’s facsimile
signature is not worth a whole lot,” said Robert Palazzo, who
is on the Board of Ethics of the Collector’s Club.
“Even if it is Schwarzenegger, for an autograph collector,
they are not interested in a facsimile.”