Kaleidoscope Yearbook Staff Calls on Students for Help

Author: Taylor Johnston

With an unusually low amount of student support, the Kaleidoscope, Middlebury College's yearbook, faces an unmanageable workload and the possibility of having no volume for the year 2004-05.

After losing a pack of seniors to last year's graduation, the Kaleidoscope must now forge ahead with only two layout staff members - Editor-in-Chief Connie Winner '06.5 and Laura Wakim '06 - a business manager, a handful of photographers and no new underclassmen filling in to maintain the staff continuity. Winner and Wakim have taken on the bulk of the 350-page work themselves.

"We might be able to get by this year but next year both of us are going abroad," explained Winner. With both of them going away and Business Manager James Black '04 graduating, prospects do not look good for the Class of 2005 annual.

"I can't imagine not having [a yearbook]," adds Wakim. "It is crucial not just at Middlebury, but for the college experience in general."

Winner and Wakim regret that no students seem interested in working to keep the tradition alive at Middlebury. Winner noted that, though the September activity fair generated some initial interest, staff numbers slowly dwindled. "Some [students] even came to meetings, but one by one they dropped."

This lack of interest may stem from the idea of the yearbook as a "high school" phenomenon. First-year Jessica Cox, who has already participated in several campus activities including the Volunteer Service Organization, Community Friends, and theater productions, shed some light on this idea. She worked on her yearbook in high school, but said, "I'm just too busy, and I do see it as a high school thing. It was a class in high school, you got a credit for it, and it was quite a big deal."

Though the "high school" stigma explains the relatively low interest in the yearbook in general, it still may not account for this year's slump in enthusiasm. The Center for Campus Activities and Leadership was not available for comment on this issue.

Winner now hopes to find a business staffer to succeed Black, more photographers, and, most importantly, students interested in helping to produce the nine sections of the annual, especially the senior and events pages. Though many students prefer to commit time during Winter Term , she hopes some students will want to stay on in the spring in order to establish some consistency in the layout.

In addition to their current efforts to generate interest, Wakim hopes to recruit some new Febs at the beginning of spring term so the staff can actualize new formatting ideas. "We had high expectations after last year," she said. "We had ideas of incorporating stylistic ideas from old books and also some new ideas. It's really hard if we don't at least have the [resources] to work with."

The Kaleidoscope also relies on the cooperation of the student body at large, student organizations, faculty and staff to help make this year's annual a success, soliciting photo contributions from all. Winner notes that working without the help of the entire community can prove very frustrating.

"When we send out e-mails and mail [about photos], we need students, faculty, and staff to get back to us as soon as possible. [When they don't] it makes deadlines stressful for us. Only one third of the organizations have submitted pictures," she explained.

If no students step up to the plate this year, the Class of 2005 may not have a volume of the Kaleidoscope without Winner or Wakim on campus. According to Wakim, yearbooks serve a larger purpose than preserving senior memories, making this prospect seem unfortunate.

"Yearbooks are placed in all the offices, admissions, the library. It's important to have a good book to draw people in," she claimed.

Winner feels the process of creating a yearbook can be just as rewarding for the staff as the final product is for the class. She described her personal experience: "I've been a part of the yearbook since eighth grade. It just came naturally. I worked with the exact same company and representative at Middlebury Union High School my senior year. It's fun. It's a great way to recap the year and its events and keep tabs on everything."