oooh! The plot thickens. I dearly hope that the dean can take care of this for Steve.
I sorta know/understand what he is going through. Happened to me as an undergrad (in a way), and then my mother was one of the graduation advisors at UTA for years. Now she is an undergraduate advisor. She didn't like telling people they couldn't graduate.
Delivering letters in person is always a good idea. If he can get the dean to approve a retroactive graduaton date, then the sectretary can't do anything about it. She will have been bypassed, and at the same time, the advisor who gave the bad info. will be reprimanded (doesn't look good when it's time for a raise, etc.) Deans can always trump a rule, it's part of their job. You just have to prove that you are doing what you say you are doing and have done your best, yada yada.
Steve asked me to write the letter to dean and I did and got some tips and such and it looks pretty good. It's an effort to get the dean to see that Steve was honestly trying to do what he should, but got bad advice and can he just do what he thought he was gonna do and if not can he take 2 hours of thesis research instead of a class?
We've tried to make Steve look cooperative (which he is) but not at fault (which he isn't).