As yearbooks die, colleges lose a link to the past

For 126 years, the Johns Hopkins University yearbook - called at various times the Debutante, the Hopkinsian, and the Hullabaloo - has documented a range of life on campus and beyond: the great tug-of-war team of 1892, protests against the Vietnam War, the class yell, and the deaths of alumni in World War II.

This year, for the first time in decades, graduating seniors won't have a yearbook to buy. Hopkins joins colleges around the country that are phasing out yearbooks, often considered relics in an age when students who already document their experiences themselves - and who can access their memories - are less interested in shelling out $100 or more for the hard copy.

Towson University published its last yearbook in 2009. Morgan State University is scaling back to print on demand. Nationwide, the University of Virginia, Wesleyan, and Purdue are among the many that have discontinued yearbooks in recent years. Virginia revived its book, Corks & Curls, last year.

Kelley Callaway, president of the College Media Association and yearbook adviser at Rice University in Texas, said yearbooks appear to be shrinking nationally, as the number of yearbook advisers with whom she stays in touch has shrunk in recent years. The association plans to start tracking the phenomenon.

They're not all going away, Callaway said - locally, Drexel, Temple, and the University of Pennsylvania still produce yearbooks - but "they're definitely morphing and changing."

When universities stop publishing their yearbooks, they lose not only a once-cherished campus tradition, but also future historical records. The hard copy also packages and presents information in a way that gives the year and its events context.

"I don't know how people will replace this resource," said James Stimpert, a senior reference archivist for Johns Hopkins' Sheridan Libraries. "Even though the Hullabaloo was a shell of its former self in recent years, it still was something. It had some photographs, it had some documentation of student clubs and other activities."

Among the items that could have been lost to history if not for some schools' yearbooks were class yells, to be hollered at campus events.

In 1897, the Maryland Agricultural College - now the University of Maryland - had several. One started off "Hippity huss! Hippity huss! What the - - - - is the matter with us?" (The yearbook offers no guidance on how to fill in the blanks.)

Change has long been coming, Callaway said.

Though yearbooks in the past featured portraits of all the students, she said, some of today's colleges have so many students they're scaling back to focus more on campus life or sports.

Some are shrinking the number of pages to cut costs. Though some seniors might not be thinking about the yearbook as they prepare for graduation, Callaway said, they might come to regret not having one decades down the line.

At Johns Hopkins, the earliest editions of the yearbook were filled with flowery prose.

Smaller classes made it possible for the editors to write detailed biographies - most of which were intended to be humorous. One laid-back student in 1928 was described as having "a most happy college career without having become embroiled to any great extent in extracurricular activities or intensive study."

Hullabaloo adviser Joan Freedman struggled last year to find students interested in putting together the yearbook. The last edition sold 228 copies at $75 apiece. "I can't put my finger on when it became a problem," Freedman said. "We just tried to sustain it as long as we could. Students will make time for things that they're passionate about, and this just wasn't one of them."

Coppin State University has a different formula for its yearbook. Unlike yearbooks assembled by students, the Eagle has an adviser who compiles the bulk of the book himself. It's given free to all graduating seniors.

Ryan Almon, co-owner of Balfour Yearbooks' Houston office, said three universities in the Houston area had dropped their books in recent years.

The industry is trying to provide the schools with resources and training for producing yearbooks, he said. It's also trying to pitch reluctant students and advisers on their value.

"It's definitely been a challenge and a battle to make sure that the yearbook is still relevant on campuses," Almon said. "I think that's what campuses are struggling with, is trying to convince students in the social-media age that the instant information that they're able to access now on their phones will not live and reside forever."

At Towson, archivists have been developing ways to document campus life since the Tower Echoes ceased publication in 2009.

They're asking student groups to submit fliers, minutes of meetings, and more to be kept in the library's collections, and are trying to obtain software that can automatically archive students' social-media postings.