For the second consecutive year, The Spirit, UTM’s student-run, student-funded yearbook, will not be printed in time for students to pick up during the first week of the semester.

But a committee responsible for overseeing student publications is evaluating possible solutions for what has become habit for the yearbook staff: missed deadlines and low staff interest.

The Spirit is funded by an $8.50-per-semester fee paid by every full-time undergraduate student. Students approved the special yearbook fee in a 2002 university-wide referendum. That fee will generate about $78,600 for the 2007 yearbook’s production, despite The Spirit's two-year backup.

UTM Coordinator of Student Publications Tomi McCutchen Parrish said she does not know how many pages have been finished, but she did say last year’s yearbook has been delayed indefinitely. “I don’t know if there is enough to get the ’06 book done,” Parrish said.

However, Parrish did say some staff members “tried very hard” to finish the book, while others walked out in March without finishing their pages.

Parrish added Co-Editors Kim Farrell and Rebecca Dailey then did not have adequate time or personnel to finish the book. However, Dailey no longer attends UTM.

Office of Student Publications policy requires yearbook staff members to only be paid for completed work, except for the two co-editors, who are paid an hourly wage.

“One person can’t put out a yearbook,” Parrish said.

Additionally, Parrish said no senior pictures were ever taken for the 2006 yearbook.

She has fielded several calls from graduated students requesting a copy of The Spirit, but she stopped short of saying the Office of Student Publications will refund the $8.50 per semester fee to students.

“Any discussion on a refund is premature.”

Even though the fee raised around $78,500 last year, Parrish said The Spirit is not wasting students’ money.

Currently, there is about $134,000 in the yearbook’s university account, enough to cover both yet-to-be-completed yearbooks, Parrish said. Since the 2004 yearbook’s distribution, which is the last edition of The Spirit to be finished, the yearbook has spent about $4,000 in supplies and $10,000 in salaries paid to the executive editors and staffers who completed their pages. The 2004 yearbook cost about $60,000 to print.

But even the 2004 yearbook was not without its complications.

Because of the late arrival of the 2004 book, The Spirit has been forced to pay close to $5,000 in postage to send the book to graduates and people who left campus before the book’s printing.

Parrish said she has yet to name a staff for the 2007 yearbook, saying she wants to focus her efforts on finding a way to finish both the 2005 and 2006 yearbooks.

Parrish is also the adviser to The Pacer, UTM’s student newspaper, which receives funds from the general student activities fee.

2006 Co-editor Kim Farrell said having staff members quit in March strained efforts to finish the already-behind-schedule 2006 yearbook.

After the 2005 yearbook failed to meet deadline, Ferrell told The Pacer she “guaranteed” the 2006 yearbook would be completed on time, but she made that promise before last year’s string of complications.

“We didn’t even get our bid until late last semester,” Farrell said. “Then, half our staff quit. It was hard getting people to come to work. The main cause [for the delay] was an uncooperative staff.”

She said there were many times when she and Dailey were the only people working on The Spirit, without a faculty adviser. Former Communications instructor Jim Bruce, the last yearbook adviser, left UTM in May 2005 and has yet to be replaced, leaving Parrish to oversee the yearbook’s completion.

Robert Nanney, Department of Communications chair, said he is disappointed the yearbook has been delayed three consecutive years.

“We’re looking at ways to fix this problem,” Nanney said. “I can assure [students] we will be fair. We’re trying once and for all to fix this.”

This year’s delay comes on the heels of a similar delay in producing last year’s yearbook. The 2005 edition of The Spirit, which was scheduled for delivery in May 2005, but Parrish said last year’s yearbook has still yet to be completed.

As for the 2005 yearbook, Parrish decided to trim the originally proposed 224-page 2005 book to 208 pages, but there are still 20 pages yet to be made. And there is no staff to make them. To improvise, Parrish said she is using work-studies to finish last year’s book.

“I attempted to direct work-studies to collect the photos we needed and other items so the affected pages could be finished, but every time a crisis occurred or people were needed for other things [around the Department of Communications office], the yearbook was the one on the back burner,” Parrish said.

Last year’s yearbook staff cited technology problems as the reason behind the delay, with Editor Kevin Anderson saying several pages were lost after he accidentally deleted the login password on his computer. After Anderson graduated in May 2005, he left the yearbook in Ferrell and Dailey’s hands.

But Ferrell and Dailey were already busy trying to produce the now-delinquent 2006 yearbook.

Parrish and her work-studies are doing their best to finish the 2005 yearbook, even though few know the software necessary for assembling the book.

“We are dedicated to finishing the ’05 yearbook within the next month,” Parrish said.

But hopefully, a remedy to the series of delays plaguing The Spirit the last three years is upcoming.

The Publications Board, which oversees The Spirit and other student publications, will meet within one month, and Parrish said the yearbook will be the central item of discussion. She hopes to “revamp” the current yearbook and make it a viable publication – even if that means scrapping the traditional printed, bound edition.

“What [Beanswitch literary magazine Adviser] Leslie LaChance and I would like most to happen is for the current yearbook fee to be reduced and become an overall student publication fee,” Parrish said. “We want it reduced partly to reduce the burden on students, and because we believe we can cut some costs in other areas.”

Parrish added moving toward an online yearbook with printing option would be an option the board would consider. She said the board is eyeing conducting a campus-wide survey to gauge students’ opinions on the yearbook, and how to best meet their expectations.

Nanney too is less-than-optimistic about the future of printed yearbooks.

“Students overall in society don’t value a yearbook as much [as in the past],” he said. “I know the board is looking at several options.”