Agreed. At least in part because they’d then have data to support the change that should be accepted by reasonable humans.
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Are we really so hard up financially and environmentally that FCAS diplomas are on the chopping block? If we can make the Super Bowl every other year we’d probably recover the environmental impact of all diploma related activity in perpetuity.
I would consider myself mollified if that is the case. I hope you are right.
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This is more like plastic straws virtue signaling.
It makes 0 (okay, maybe 0.00000000001) impact on the environment.
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The CAS can’t control the Super Bowl, but they can control this and they should. Based on the ‘no impact’ argument, no one should do anything and that’s not going to work.
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I just got a delivery from chewy. On the box it said “to reduce our carbon footprint, we are sending your delivery all in one box. Package may be heavy.”
And yea, it was 50 pounds of cat food that the delivery guy left at the foot of my driveway instead of by my door.
Does anyone actually believe the decision to reduce their packaging was motivated by anything other than cost cutting? Reducing the carbon footprint is just a smart marketing idea to get your customers to accept it.
CAS still sends me printed pamphlets of future fellows every quarter, surely that dwarfs the carbon footprint of the 500 or so diplomas every year.
The real answer is greed. Not from the CAS, but from Parchment. Parchment appears to me at first glance be just another VC tech startup, trying to disguise itself as something more noble than it is. When it’s really just a cover to extract money from people in a take it or leave it proposition. It seems most of their business is gouging college students, who are more used to being gouged with no recourse. These kind of friendly face orgs with questionable morality are becoming more and more common. Just being associated with them gives me an unpleasant feeling.
Is reducing our carbon footprint good? Of course. Should the CAS switch to just offering the diploma to people who request it? Why not.
Should we partner with some org to price gouge our members who do want a diploma to hang in their office? No.
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I just got an email saying printed printed diplomas will be free. I’m glad they made this change, and also consider myself sufficiently mollified.
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Interesting, I haven’t received anything. Is this just your personal correspondence with the CAS?
Yeah, I sent a letter to the editor for the Actuarial Review magazine.
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As an alum of the UC system, ouch lol
sorry, wanted a more generic one, nothing implied
New email from the CEO, back to offering a free diploma. Credit where it’s due.
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Agreed. I’m willing to chalk this up to decent idea/bad rollout.
Decent idea/bad rollout, and maybe a bit of naïveté.
At least that’s the most charitable interpretation of events.
CLOSE THE THREAD.
Lock the doors. The informant is from the inside.
I wonder how popular an opt out program would be. If you opt in for a digital diploma the CAS will send you a $50 Amex gift card
Did anyone end up ordering the physical copy of their diploma from Parchment? If so, is someone willing to share what it looks like? Is it similar to the old ones the CAS provided?
