A recent petition at UAB is calling for undergraduate diplomas to include students’ majors, an omission that has sparked confusion and debate among graduating Blazers.

Joshua Williams, a returning UAB graduate majoring in information systems, started the petition after realizing that most undergraduate diplomas from the Collat School of Business, School of Public Health, School of Education and College of Arts and Sciences do not list majors.

“I started out just reaching out to friends at first, just seeing if there was some interest for this — especially in the alumni community,” Williams said. “After about a dozen friends brought it up, one suggested making a Google petition. So after the first week of school, that’s what I began doing — advertising it on LinkedIn and through classes.”

Williams has since promoted the petition across campus through flyers and word-of-mouth.

“I started putting flyers all over campus — the Commons, the Hill Student Center, Collat, Arts and Sciences, and the School of Education,” he said. “I’ve also brought it up in class forums, GroupMe, LinkedIn and group chats — just to see how many people and how many different avenues I could reach.”

Williams said faculty response has been mostly positive, and he hopes to engage more university leaders.

“Besides the president of USGA, I’ve had some professors reach out — Dr. Murphy was really supportive,” he said. “I’ve also talked to the associate dean at Collat and plan to bring it up with higher-ranked officials.”

Williams has also tabled around campus to raise awareness.

“It’s been going pretty good,” he said. “I started out at Collat because I thought it was a Collat issue, but now I’ve branched out to other places like the Hill Center and the School of Arts and Sciences.”

As of Sept. 9, Williams said the petition had 224 signatures, including 111 Collat undergraduates, 57 students from other schools, 46 alumni, three faculty or staff members, and seven unaffiliated supporters.

When reached for comment, Collat Dean Christopher Shook referred the issue to Alicia Rohan, who provided a statement from Janet Woodruff-Borden, senior vice president for Academic Affairs and provost.

“We are aware of the petition and student efforts to add degree names to diplomas,” Woodruff-Borden said. “We are looking into this as an institution.”

According to an email sent out Sept. 18, the petition now requires signatures from 10% of the student population for submission to the Office of the Provost.

Many students have expressed support for the change.

Jason McCall, a first-year undeclared student, said, “I think it would be pretty nice to have that on your degree.”

“In terms of having your degree on it, I think it should be on there because you worked on something — it should be shown,” said Ashley Jackson, a second-year accounting major.

“People worked for their business or their bio degrees, and they should be able to show it off,” said Alannah Croskey, a second-year biology major.

Williams said he plans to continue advocating for the issue and will testify about it before the Undergraduate Student Government Association.

“I’m going to continue to bring awareness to it, keep putting flyers up, and reach people both within and outside the institution,” he said. “Ultimately, I just want every student to have some form of recognition for what they went to school for.”

The petition continues to gain traction as students call for more transparency and recognition in how UAB represents their academic achievements.