Natural Selection
January 28, 2010 • By Ariel Bojeun,
Print This Post
Email This Post
As the University of Virginia’s yearbook Corks and Curls comes to an end after nearly 120 years, James Madison’s Bluestone is reaching new contemporary heights. A university’s yearbook serves as a graphic and narrated history of the students, academics, staff, sports teams and more. But as the ability to connect through digital means, like Facebook, overcomes traditional media, long-treasured productions are being cut.
Student interest slowly dwindled over the past years for the Corks and Curls yearbook produced annually by U. Va. So much so that it went unnoticed in 2008 when no yearbook was produced. This academic year U. Va. officially decided a yearbook would not be produced. According to Whitney Spivey, a 2005 U. Va graduate and former staff member, interviewed in Monday’s edition of U. Va.’s Cavalier Daily, even though Corks and Curls is almost 120 years old, it’s had financial problems since 2003 because of student apathy.
Instead of giving in and accepting demise, the Bluestone is working to appeal to more students in a contemporary manner. Senior Rebecca Schneider, the editor-in-chief of Bluestone, assures that “this year’s book is going to be different than that in past years; we are going for a more ‘contemporary magazine’ feel and are improving all aspects of design and photography.”
More specifically Schneider notes, “the book has a much more consistent, modern feel to it, and I believe students will find it much more visually and intellectually interesting than some of the past yearbooks.”
Unlike the personal cost for each U. Va. student, James Madison’s Bluestone is financed by general tuition. Sarah Chain, copy editor at the Bluestone, explains “we are fortunate at JMU to have our expenses paid by the university, so we don’t need to charge students out of pocket for their yearbooks at the end of the year. Other schools that sell their books at $75 a piece often only sell a couple thousand in a campus our size.”
In reference to the Bluestone’s future, Schneider guarantees “as long as the JMU community continues to show an interest in the publication, it will continue production.” Schneider also states that despite the digital shift to online production, “there hasn’t been any talk of doing this for Bluestone, and I believe we will continue to stay in print publication.”
Contact Ariel Bojeun at bojeunae@jmu.edu
Comments
Got something to say?
Best of the 'Burg Supplement
April 29, 2010 Issue in Print
