Yearbooks for the 2003-2004 school year will not be available until next fall because of this year’s staff of The Spirit failing to meet deadlines.

If deadlines were met, students would have been able to pick up their yearbooks during finals week of the spring semester. But, returning students will now have to wait until the first two weeks of classes during the fall 2004 semester. All December 2003 and May 2004 graduates will receive their books in the mail.

Dr. Robert Nanney, chair of the Department of Communications, says the delay is due to staffing problems.

“We join others in their deep disappointment that the yearbook is not yet available. The delay is because of missed deadlines, caused by staffing problems. We have made changes in student staff and the student media organizational structure to assure that this doesn’t happen again,” Nanney says.

Senior Kevin Anderson who served as Sports Editor for the yearbook says that the staff was consistently late. “The staff did not finish their pages on time, editing was not done on time and the pages were not sent off on time,” Anderson says.

Student fees support the budget for the yearbook. Each full-time undergraduate student pays a fee of $8.50 per semester, generating about $78,500 per year. The yearbook is put together entirely by students, as is the student newspaper, The Pacer. Staff members in both organizations are paid for their services.

The yearbook fee was brought up as a referendum and was passed by the student body during SGA elections in 2002.

Anderson was recently appointed as the executive editor of The Spirit for the upcoming academic year. He will be replacing former Executive Editor Joey Pierce, who was unavailable for comment at press time.

Anderson says that he is disappointed that deadlines weren’t met but that he believes the students still need to pay for the yearbook fee.

“I think it is extremely disappointing that they’re not out on time. But, if the students don’t pay for the books, then the yearbook is gone. It sucks that this happened, but it’s something that we have to deal with,” says Anderson.

As for moving forward, the Publications Committee voted on Wednesday, May 5, to approve a request to combine some of the editorial processes and all of the production processes of The Pacer, The Spirit and Beanswitch under the umbrella of a UTM Office of Student Publications. Tomi McCutchen Parrish will serve as the coordinator.

“The creation of this office would allow me, as its coordinator, to better streamline the day-to-day operations of the three publications,” Parrish says. This would include meeting deadlines.

Parrish says that any students with questions should contact her. Her email is tomimc@utm.edu. She can also be reached by phone at 731-587-7558 or by an office visit to 305D Gooch Hall.

“I apologize to the students for not informing them earlier of our problems and how to get their books,” Parrish says. “I can guarantee that I will work extra-hard this year as coordinator of Student Publications to ensure that the 2005 books are here before graduation.”