Matt Robinson, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter
This year the Cabin Log, Berry’s yearbook, will be distributed to students in the spring instead of the fall in an attempt to change the way students think about yearbooks.
The price of the yearbook used to be built into tuition fees for all students, but a few years ago that changed. Now students pay for the yearbook out-of-pocket. Therefore, many students have not bothered to purchase a yearbook in recent years.
The price this year will be $25 until Dec. 15, when the price will go up to $50.
Part of the reason, according to the yearbook’s editor-in-chief Kirstie Broadwell, is that students used to have to wait several months after the end of the academic year to get their yearbook. By that time, many students either forgot to buy a yearbook or were so far removed from the previous school year that they did not see the point in buying one. In addition, students who graduated in the spring had to have their yearbook shipped to them later that fall.
Broadwell said that last year Julie Bumpus, associate vice president of student affairs, suggested the possibility of a spring publication.
This year, that idea will become a reality. With an earlier publication time, about one week before the end of the academic year, the yearbook staff hopes to create more anticipation for the yearbook.
“Hopefully, publishing in the spring will drive more excitement for the yearbook, and more people will purchase it,” Kevin Kleine, advisor of student publications, said.
Kleine also said that because the yearbook must be finished much farther in advance, students working for the yearbook will have more time for their academics at the end of the spring semester. Kleine said, however, that the yearbook will “not be a yearbook in the classic sense.”
Since the yearbook has to be completed earlier, any events after March 1, including spring commencement and some spring sports, will not be included in this year’s edition. Kleine said those events could potentially be put in the next year’s yearbook, but combining two separate academic years into one yearbook may be a bit cumbersome.
Senior Liz Robbins said that while publishing in the spring “would not provide a holistic perspective of the year,” it would motivate students to purchase a yearbook while the year was still fresh in their minds.
In addition to the earlier publication, the yearbook will also be printed in full color again this year.