Students struggle to make yearbook more popular with NU student body

By Kara Swarbrick
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

A yearbook is an object that many people regard as a part of life neatly arranged between pages, so what would college be without one? Elysha Nelson is personally making sure Norwich never finds out.

Nelson, 20, a senior communications major from Lunenburg, Vt., and senior editor of the Norwich yearbook committee is pulling double duty, along with the rest of the group, by trying to finish last year's book and start working on the upcoming yearbook.

"We have much more time to work on the yearbook this year," Nelson said. "Last year, we had only twelve weeks to put the entire book together, so it was quite a time crunch, which is why the book isn't out, yet. Hopefully, this year's book will be a huge improvement, because we have more time to play with it."

Already the yearbook committee is way ahead of the committees in the past. Last year, the book was not started until January; whereas, this year it has been worked on consistently since October.

"Our ultimate goal is to have a yearbook that all members of the student body want to have, and to get it out in a timely manner," Nelson said.

"We have a great student staff this time who are already actively doing it," said Colonel Michael McKean, commandant of students. "It's huge. I think it's great."

"Two years ago, I was very concerned about where the yearbook was going," said Richard Schneider, president of Norwich University. "It was ultimate frustration for everyone: students, parents and the staff."

After last year's lack of interest in the yearbook, there were measures taken to ensure that it would not happen again.

"As a result of my efforts and Chan Stowell's, we actually hired a faculty member, and we pay him, and he is on the staff permanently, so we have guidance and continuity on the yearbook," said McKean.

The staff member hired for this position is Professor Charles Coburn, English professor and yearbook advisor.

"This year's book will have more to offer the students, since we have time to perfect it," Coburn said. "The staff has already been working diligently to stay on top of everything."

There are approximately 15 people on the yearbook staff right now, but they are "always looking for more help," said Coburn.

Self-perpetuation is where the yearbook should be heading, and having all classes represented, with mostly juniors who can teach the classes under them and then take over, will help to achieve that, according to McKean.

A few members returned from last year, but, according to Nelson, there are also a lot of new people with different levels of experience. This, however, does not seem to be causing a problem.

"Sometimes it is hard to combine everyone's ideas and opinions so that every person on the staff is entirely happy with every aspect of the book, but that hasn't really been an issue thus far," Nelson said.

Although student interest has gone up from last year, the number of people working on the yearbook is too low.

"We need a bigger volunteer staff to make better improvements in the yearbook," Schneider said. "We should have 40-50 people working on this yearbook. So that's my challenge to the senior class: where are you?"

Despite more people, the committee also is in need of technology and good public relations.

"Right now we are waiting on getting a brand new computer for the yearbook office to put all of our programs on," Nelson said. "Once we have that, we can really get to work on the layout."

"A computer would make laying out the pages much easier," Coburn said. "Last year a couple of students had to take the program and put it on their own computers, which got confusing once they had to bring them together."

Public relations and advertising is also something that the yearbook committee lacked in the past years, and that is being corrected.

"Informing the campus about the yearbook and how to get involved has always been a challenge," Coburn said. " Whether it's people not reading their campus mail or signs not being seen, the yearbook just hasn't been getting the attention it deserves. This is something we are planning to fix this time around."

"This year, we are really going to push sales," Nelson said. "Also, we are committed to getting this book out as soon as it possibly can. The last pages should be complete by graduation, so it will go to print around then."

To look at the yearbooks of the past, the mood and tone of the book is different.

"The old yearbooks are great," McKean said. "The ones in the immediate past got thinner and thinner and are, in my opinion, very sterile there: the student imagination, student love or passion for the university."

"I think [the last few yearbooks] lacked not only the passion, they lacked the hands," Schneider said. "Those staffs were overworked, because their classmates didn't help them."

"From my perspective, I think we need more volunteers," Schneider said. "We need more people engaged in their yearbook, because when you go to your 25th reunion you'd be surprised how much all of you want it."

A yearbook is seen differently as the years pass. It changes meaning and starts to represent something special.

"It's looked at as an expensive book, but it's not about today, it's about tomorrow," McKean said. "[The yearbook] is all about traditions, heritage and history of this university. It's the only place that it's captured, and if that ever died out, how would we ever capture it?"

Coburn has high hopes for this year's book.

"We are going to have a great book this year," Coburn said. "We have a wonderful staff that works very hard, and the student body is slowly coming around, too."

"We desperately need a yearbook, and I want to have a great yearbook, and you do, too, as a class," Schneider said. "Activities come and go in the lives of colleges, and some years things are really big, and other times they're not, but a yearbook is the corporate memory of your class. You will use it much more than you realize it."

According to McKean, a yearbook is about the pictures, especially the ones that are unplanned and catch students fooling around and having fun. To him, that is "what a yearbook's all about."

"The yearbook the last few years has been very rushed, so I do not feel that it has been pushed to its full potential," Nelson said. "I do think that it is important for students to have a yearbook, especially a few years after graduation."

"A yearbook is not about when you graduate, it's about 10 years from then," McKean said. "It's your history, for you to look back at the fond memories you will have later."

"I commend the students who are doing all the community service in our community, but there is community service that has to be done right here, too, and it's this yearbook," Schneider said.

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