The end of the Cobber yearbook?
The 2008 Cobber yearbook, currently being distributed in Anderson Commons, may be the last of its kind. At a recent budget review, Student Government Association decided not to grant the $60,000 proposal made by the yearbook staff. As of right now, there will be no 2009-2012 yearbook.
SGA made this decision based on their belief that there is a major lack of student interest in the document. The two largest factors in determining the interest level are low attendance on yearbook photo day and large numbers of left over books at the end of the year.
Yearbook editor Alison DeGuise has been a member of the yearbook staff for her past three years of college. She says she has noticed a “definite lack of student interest.”
“[It] makes it difficult for me to want to create a yearbook. Why put so much time and effort into something students do not appreciate,” she said. “That is not to say all students feel this way, but in the three years I have been involved, students either do not even know we have a yearbook, or don’t care.”
DeGuise says she orders 800 fewer books than there are students, and there are still “plenty of leftover books.” These leftover books are circulated to department offices or are put in storage. DeGuise and SGA officials consider this an example of how the yearbook wastes money and paper.
At $24 per student, the yearbook makes up the largest part of annual student activity fees. SGA is trying to determine if this money is well spent, or if the majority of students would rather use it for something else.
In response to the decision, Concordia students created a Facebook group entitled, “I want a Cobber yearbook,” which currently has 366 members. On the group’s message board, members discuss their opinions as well as different options for the future of the yearbook with SGA president Jordan Sing.
Opinions range from disinterest in any yearbook to extreme interest in keeping the yearbook tradition “as is.” Sophomore Jacque Olson says that had the yearbook been better advertised she would have loved to be a part of it.
“I assumed there was a yearbook, but never really heard about it,” she said. “I think in my four semesters at Concordia, I’ve seen maybe one sign for getting your picture taken.”
DeGuise notes that she has also been disappointed by the small staff she has worked with. This year, she is the editor of the yearbook, with only two staff members to assist her.
“In high school it was so much fun to create a yearbook as a team - to document an entire year of memories in one book,” DeGuise said. “Unfortunately at the college level I have not had that team aspect and therefore it has not been as good of an experience as I’d hoped.”
Director of Alumni Relations, Searle Swedlund says that the office of Alumni Relations has offered to help with the yearbook, though their help was not taken.
“We know it’s not easy to get the book out,” Swedlund said. “No other colleges do yearbooks because it’s hard to do it. It’s not easy to organize homecoming or the beanie toss, either, but we do it, because we embrace tradition at Concordia.”
Swedlund, a Concordia graduate, says he relates to student disinterest in the book now. He says that though he was not interested in yearbooks as a student, the document means a great deal to him now.
“The book contains history – the people we knew and the people we only kind of knew,” he said. “There is a romance in holding that piece of paper in your hand.”
Swedlund says that his office and the Concordia Archives have taken great interest in “saving the yearbook.” He says these offices take specific interest in the book because they are “guardians of tradition.”
“If you go to the Archives to do a project on the history of Concordia, they will direct you either to the Concordian or the Cobber Yearbook,” he said.
Swedlund says he is frustrated that the Concordia class of 2009 got no voice in the decision regarding their senior yearbook.
“It’s not fair to the graduating class that assumes they’re going to get a yearbook because for the past 124 years they’ve been distributed,” he said.
Though Swedlund believes that a better process for future yearbooks would generate more interest in the document, he admits that he may be wrong about the level of student interest.
“We are trying to protect that history,” he said, “but if students don’t want it, there is nothing to protect. Students need to tell SGA what they want. I just don’t want the decision to be regretted – by SGA or students.”
Everyone involved in the decision stresses that the yearbook has not disappeared. In cooperation with the current yearbook staff, Concordia Archives and the office of Alumni Relations, SGA is discussing what could take the yearbook’s place. Several suggestions include a digital yearbook, a smaller sized book, or a book without a hard cover.
