Western Michigan University - Brown and Gold Yearbook (Kalamazoo, MI)

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n Experiment In Yearbook Euthanasia publication costs. Never mind that in 5, the year of tight money all across Amer- the THRESHOLD made more actual dol- from sales than in any previous year. er mind that the Greeks and organizations campus are making a comeback from the e slump we were in, and that their partici- ion in this year's book increased signifi- tly over last year. Never mind that our s were up forty percent over 1974, and that number of seniors getting their picture ta- . for the book was up nearly thirty-five cent over last yearg the highest number e 1968. Never mind that for the last four rs the Western Herald, WIDR, and the RESHOLD have been the recipients of a ee way split of the university's General d, and that out of its one hundred and five usand dollar budget, the highest amount d out to THRESHOLD for any one year, E slightly above six thousand dollars. Never d that though Western's administration nplains that we do not serve enough of the npus community to warrant further fund- , that the THRESHOLD sells to a higher centage of its student population than any other state supported university in Michigan, and that with a paid business staff of two sup- plemented by three secretaries! But never mind all these never minds. Mon- ey's tight, and when the purse strings are shor- tened funny things happen, belts are tight- ened, people are laid off, and luxuries are trimmed. Apparently we're considered a lux- ury, a frill, something kind of cute, and nice to keep around in order to humor those few peo- ple that are dedicated, interested, and con- cerned with leaving a living record of Western Michigan University for any who care to relive it in the future. But that's just so long as the bucks are floating easy. 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and, brother, if you don't make a profit, at least return enough to balance the budget, you're not tough, you're not even worth the paper you're written on, nor the effort that hundreds of people have put into carving a book out of the bricks and stone, flesh and blood, that make up this university. I wonder when the last time was that the Board of Trustees made a profit. But, then, perhaps they do. If they can charge ten bucks for a one page diploma that is supposed to ' Miiihmql ',, ' E' - 'I,.F4 ' W - c Y ,V f' S M yi-M Q,-'U' i. 0 P ' ywissesbxi W' k fm 'Sv UV y i minimal W 5

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better year to go, except maybe last year. book was prettier in 1974. Looking like a d of cards, with the joker on the cover, it wo have been immensely appropriate for a fi book, but not very funny. But, in a way, I suppose we brought all t on ourselves. The TI-IRESHOLD has be caught up for several years now in the crun of opposing forces: decreasing financial ba ing on the one hand, and an upward careeni spiral of production costs on the other. T year it all caught up with us. Our accumulat deficit was indeed phenomenal, amounting nearly forty thousand dollars at one point, a that, as any good businessman knows, is b business. And if our administration hereiat Wester full of anything, it is full of good businessm They know a bottomless pit when they see o and, in a way, that's what we are. One ye book covers only that, one year. Each year i wholly new production, with new beginnin new endings, and a year to capture all to its Each year means expenses of between thir five and forty thousand dollars, and that's W' a cut down version of the book from its h days in the late sixties. Yet, after all the ho of work, meeting deadlines, hounding staffer and chasing down as many groups and indix duals around the campus as possible, we st aren't doing well enough. We don't make el ough money to support ourselves, and here lies the problem. Put simply, we don't sell enough books make ours a money making operation. Nev mind that the University of Michigan sel fewer books than we do, to a student popula ion nearly twice our own. Never mind that vl sell the second largest number of college yea, books in the state of Michigan, second only i the sprawling campus of Michigan State Un versity. Never mind that WMU's Tl-IRI SHOLD has been a consistent award winner i yearbook annual competition. Never mir that in the last five years we have cut produ tion costs from a high of nearly fifty thousar dollars in 1971, to thirty-five thousand th year, and this in the face of ever rising papi

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symbolize at least four years of a student's life, that's not too bad. In the last four years any student could have purchased four yearbooks, totalling thirteen hundred and ninety-two pages, for less than twenty dollars. Somewhere we missed the boat, we haven't been ripping people off enough. We tried to give each stu- dent as much of their university experience back to them as we could, for as little as we could. Obviously, a silly idea. We, as a staff, realize that we have been taking from the university more than we have been paying back, and we also realize that we Granted, our product has limited comm cial appeal in a market that experiences tighter money situation than many of the employed citizens of this country, studei But grant us in return that ours is a uni product, a unique media, one designed for future, not today, one that retains better W ture quality than a television and sifts dc and summarizes the events that takes hundred and sixty-five newspapers a year, that gains worth steadily as the years go instead of depreciating into nothingnessg gm. . N . an., f ,W N have been giving out more to students than they have been paying back. We agree that both situations should be corrected. We as an organization must do everything in our power to increase the financial sufficiency of Wes- tern's yearbook. We feel our sales increases and an upsurge in group participation in the book have more than started us in that direc- tion. We do not feel that the THRESHOLD deserves to die an early death because sudden- ly money is tight elsewhere, nor have to lose its hard earned momentum because people want to see if it will come back to life once they kill iii,-QEAlf',E 5 fills iv Z.. 775s Jw.---NQQ , A ,' f V, w . L ,. ,' l J, r - f ' .T 5'-,C f :fu - I .J ,K ya' 1 'Y 1 I ', I 1' 'U' .fff . E , 'ii ll. J bg' . ,ll l ,w Ja., 'ff ' t .', 2: . '- , n '. .- .,. ag, W .- , .-, I 3' F e ' e that captures something that no one can hope to regain, one that no person can eve hope to reproduce once a single experience ha occurred and faded into the past unrecorded. A yearbook is indeed a strange commodity It defies economic realities, and, therefore, of ten creates financial confusion and distortions But it does provide a service, one both uniqu and denied of second chances, and one tha over two thousand people on this campus thi year alone felt necessary, lasting, and worth while enough to invest in. It is for these people and any others that may come to appreciati