Posted on 11/03/2005 9:50:30 AM PST by NewHampshireDuo
Catherine Hansberry can see at least one benefit of her alma mater listing her as dead.
“I’m dead? Oh, I didn’t know that,” said a chuckling Hansberry, 24, UNH class of 2003. “Does that mean I don’t have to pay my loans anymore?”
She found out Wednesday that the University of New Hampshire accidentally lists her – and 500 other living alumni – among the deceased in the 2005 alumni directory. The university apologized to alumni in an e-mail.
“I kind of wonder how it happened,” said Hansberry, a long-term kindergarten substitute teacher at Bicentennial Elementary School. “It is kind of shocking.”
The list of the not-yet-dead even includes the wife of the Alumni Association president.
The flawed directory was mailed out three weeks ago to former students who ordered them. University spokesperson Kim Billings blamed the error on PCI, the company that produced the directory.
“It’s a company we had problems with through the process,” Billings said.
“The university feels terrible and has insisted that they rectify the situation as best they can.
“We are very glad the 501 people are still alive,” Billings said.
The error apparently occurred when a PCI employee miscoded 501 individuals while inserting one of the many files it takes to put a directory together, said J. Gregg Sanborn, executive director of the Alumni Association.
“The person, they have indicated, is no longer an employee of theirs,” Sanborn said.
Barbara Winch of Hooksett, a 1960 grad, confirmed Wednesday that she was listed among the departed. She happens to be the wife of Carroll Winch, class of 1963, who happens to be “I am not happy about that, but that was a mistake that was made, and it’s not a big one for me,” said Barbara Winch. “I believe it was a mistake that is not fatal. I’m still here.”
Evidently, one of the 501 alumni listed as dead is actually deceased. Francis Tate, a 1942 graduate who was formerly a track coach for Nashua High School, died earlier this year, at age 94.
PCI, the directory company, will reimburse the $70 cost of the directory to the not-dead alumni who bought the directory, according to Sanborn.
The company is calling to apologize to alumni who were inadvertently listed as dead, and within the next two weeks will send them a corrected compact disc version of the directory, and a printed addendum with the corrected information, Sanborn said. Anyone else who bought a directory will receive the CD-ROM as well. Normally the directory is updated every five years, Sanborn said.
“As soon as the books were received by the individuals who purchased them, we began to get one or two phone calls,” Sanborn said. “As soon as that occurred, we went back to the company to research the situation.”
Sanborn e-mailed UNH alumni Wednesday morning, alerting them of the error. The Alumni Association is also mailing a postcard notice to alumni who ordered the directory about the mistake and what is being done about it.
“I knew there was a reason I never liked UNH,” said 2003 alumna Sarah Lebrun, 24, a copy editor at Neighborhood News in Manchester.
“As far as I know, I’m not dead.”
Wonder how they all voted? Obviously irrelevant but just a question
Here's a quick test...did you vote Democrat in the last election?
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