The yearbook for the 2004-2005 school year has faced several delays and failed to meet deadlines in the spring.

If deadlines would have been met, students would have been able to pick up their yearbooks during finals week in the spring.

But missed deadlines and computer problems have delayed publication until an unknown future date.

To compound the problem, Jim Bruce, last year’s adviser to The Spirit, UTM’s student-run yearbook, resigned in the spring, leaving Tomi McCutchen Parrish, the current adviser, to oversee the completion of both last year’s and this year’s yearbooks.

Parrish said that last fall’s deadlines were met, but problems emerged in the spring semester with paid staff members submitting pages in a timely manner.

Staff members worked through the summer, but as of press time, only 91 of 244 pages have been sent to the publisher, the Marceline, Mo.-based Walsworth Publishing Company. Walsworth specializes in printing school yearbooks.

Kevin Anderson, last year’s editor for The Spirit, told Parrish that many pages were saved on the yearbook’s computer, but now a computer accident has caused the pages to be lost.

“I was trying to change the password on the desktop, and I accidentally deleted the username, so our PDF’s that we were supposed to send to the publisher got lost,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t really thinking when I was doing it.”

After making the yearbook pages with design software, staff members convert page files to PDF and send those files to Walsworth for printing.

Anderson claims he finished the yearbook in May after the staff missed several deadlines. After graduation, Anderson moved to Nashville to begin work as an e-commerce representative, leaving the recovery of the PDF’s and the yearbook in the hands of the new editorial staff.

Anderson said he is sorry that the yearbook was not finished under his watch.

“I personally am horrified,” Anderson said. “I knew when I was leaving in May that they wouldn’t get it in when school got out, and that sucked because I worked really hard on it.”

As far as when the yearbook will be ready, Parrish is “not really sure.”

“I cannot give a definite answer until the primary computer is repaired,” Parrish said.

However, staff members have told Parrish, who is also an instructor in the UTM Department of Communications, that many of the pages have been completed, but they cannot be accessed and sent to the printer.

This year’s delay comes on the heels of a similar delay in 2003-2004, which forced The Spirit staff to mail the yearbooks to graduated seniors. Last year’s yearbook was not made available until the middle of the fall semester after the staff failed to meet deadlines.

Last year’s yearbook staff told The Pacer that they would correct their mistakes and try to get the 2004-2005 yearbook finished on time.

Dr. Robert Nanney, Communications department chair, said he regrets the delay.

“We want to get it here just as quickly as everybody else,” Nanney said. “We’re trying to find out what’s happening.”

When the yearbook is published, it will be the second time The Spirit will be published behind schedule since a yearbook fee was instituted in 2002.

The fee was approved in a student referendum during the Student Government Association elections.

Each full-time undergraduate student pays $8.50 per semester to finance the school yearbook. Last year, more than $78,500 was raised from student fees.

Student staff members are paid according to the work they complete, Parrish said. Therefore, if a staff member fails to complete a page, he or she does not get paid until it is done.

Last year’s yearbook cost $60,000 to print, but The Spirit had to pay $3,115.99 in postage to send the yearbook to graduated seniors. Administrators anticipate having to pay postage yet again to send the yearbook to last year’s fall and spring graduates.

In May, the UTM Publications Committee approved Rebecca Dailey and Kim Ferrell as the co-editors for the 2005-2006 school year. Parrish said the first priority for the new leadership will be finishing the 2004-2005 edition of The Spirit.

“What held us up last year was student photos,” said Kim Ferrell, the new co-editor. “We’re going to see to that first this year.”

Ferrell blames “bad communication” for last year’s delay and said that she and Dailey are taking steps to ensure more timely completion of this year’s.

“I can guarantee that the 2006 yearbook will be here on time,” Ferrell said.