UW-Madison yearbook won't be published this year
11:39 PM 3/23/04
Karen Rivedal Wisconsin State Journal

For the first time since 1974 - and for only the third time in the last 115 years - the UW-Madison Badger Yearbook won't be published this year. <

A student group in charge of putting out the yearbook ran out of time and money to do the job, former editor-in-chief Heather Migut said this week. The group, which had run up a debt of roughly $40,000 to yearbook publisher Herff Jones since 1998, also received little support from university officials, Migut said. <

"It was an extreme situation," she said. "It's just very disappointing to me that the university isn't willing to put out for this tradition considering the amount of money they spend elsewhere." <

An estimated 200 people who already paid $45 per book will get their money back, Migut said. Those waiting for last year's books, delayed for months, should have them soon, she said. <

UW-Madison officials in the Dean of Students office said their hands were tied. The yearbook group, a loose collection of students that changes from year to year, was not registered as an official student organization and did not have a strong adviser to guide them. <

"Putting out this yearbook is a huge task," said assistant dean Elton Crim. "I think it actually would take a full-time person to work with them for the year and somebody with knowledge about publishing. They don't have that, for sure." <

University officials said they were just as sad as the students to see the yearbook discontinued. According to university archivist David Null, the only other time the yearbook was not published since 1889 was from 1972-1974. <

"It's very unfortunate," said Lori Berquam, associate dean of students. "It would be tragic to not have the Wisconsin yearbook." <

Exactly how the yearbook ran aground is somewhat unclear. Bad management and too little supervision were among the reasons cited by officials and students. <

Migut, 21, a third-year English major, said last year's effort was plagued by "lack of communication, lack of dedication and lack of interest on the part of both the staff and the university." Migut, who was a section editor last year, also said former student leaders "had a long history" of using the money they collected from orders for purposes other than publishing the yearbook. <

For example, Migut said prior years' staffers were given paid dinners and reimbursed for their work, a practice Migut said she stopped when she became editor this year. <

"There was a lot of money going out," she said. "It started getting out of control." <

Migut said last year's editor was Melissa Lynne Delman and last year's student in charge of publishing issues was Katie Wood. Both graduated last year and could not be located for comment Tuesday. <

The yearbook staff in 1998 also began using money from the current year's sales to pay for the publishing of the previous year's yearbook, Migut and university officials said. <

"It resulted in robbing Peter to pay Paul," Crim said. <

The Dean of Students office became involved in the yearbook problems after parents started calling about not receiving last year's yearbook, Crim said. That book was supposed to have gone out in July, but was delayed when last year's staff didn't finish it. <

This year's group of students spent most of the first semester finishing last year's book, Migut and Crim said. <

Crim praised this year's yearbook staffers as hard workers but said that hasn't always been the case. <

"Some years they've been really good workers, some years they're not so diligent, and those years they get in trouble," he said. <

Migut said an agreement with Herff Jones should eliminate the debt. Herff Jones sales representative Lori Wilson confirmed the students were close to paying it off. <

It's unclear who, if anyone, might try to put out next year's book. Most of Migut's former staff has resigned, she said, "due to the controversy that has ensued." <

"I'm really just trying to leave it at the point where there's a clean slate," Migut said. <

Contact Karen Rivedal at krivedal@madison.com or 252-6106. <