Picture This
The Princeton campus remains camera-shy

By Olivia Tattory

Efforts to successfully integrate the Lawrenceville and Princeton campuses’ yearbooks have been slowed because of lack of participation from Westminster seniors.

“It has been an ongoing challenge for the last two years to get Westminster students to have their senior portraits taken,” said Kim Frey, co-executive editor of the Shadow yearbook. “They never wanted to participate so it has been a struggle with that campus.”

The 2007 issue is the third year the Westminster campus is included in The Shadow yearbook. According to Pete Borg, the Shadow yearbook adviser, WCC struggled in the past to produce its own yearbook, The Quadrangle. The last edition was published in 2003, while there were no editions in 1958, 1978, 1987, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

“When we decided to [combine the yearbooks,] they didn’t have a yearbook, they didn’t have the funding and hadn’t had a book in a few years,” said Borg. “It only makes sense that we include the Westminster College in The Shadow.”

While past efforts to staff a yearbook liaison at the Princeton campus have been completely unsuccessful, The Shadow staff now has two WCC students working for the yearbook. The liaisons, Katie Matheson and Michael Greulich, both freshmen, have witnessed first-hand the difficulty in getting Westminster students to sign up for senior portraits.

“The feedback from the senior class in general really isn’t good,” said Matheson. “We’re [Westminster] in such a bubble, we don’t really feel as if we’re part of the same campus.”

The first photo session for WCC students, scheduled for Oct. 17, was cancelled because of lack of participation. As of Wednesday, the next photo session, scheduled for Nov. 30, has only three students on the list.

According to Frey, The Shadow yearbook staff has done its part in advertising and promoting the senior portrait dates by sending numerous e-mails to WCC seniors, putting up flyers around campus and being in constant contact with Associate Dean of Students Larry Johnson.

Johnson is unsure as to why WCC seniors have not actively pursued senior portraits and offered one suggestion for the absence of WCC faces in The Shadow.

“It could be that some students feel the connection between both campuses isn’t really there,” said Johnson.

Last year, only 12 students from the 2006 WCC senior class showed their faces in the Shadow, and in 2005 only six students were photographed.

Borg feels that the combining of the yearbooks is a good resource for the administration to use to reach its ultimate goal of unifying the entire University. The shortage of WCC student participation could be a combination of things: the lack of communication between campuses or a lack of interest by WCC students in the yearbook in general, he added.

The lack of yearbook participation from WCC students may in fact be a symptom of a deeper problem. Opinions gathered from 15 WCC students suggested the notion that although the two campuses are physically only a few minutes apart, the state of mind among students is very different.

“I don’t really feel like we’re part of the same University,” said one Westminster survey participant. “I have no idea what goes on at Rider.”

Most of the WCC students surveyed responded “not at all” when asked whether they felt associated with the Lawrenceville campus. Only 27 percent of those polled agreed with the integration of the two campuses.

For $10, students can have their portrait taken and later receive a yearbook. Borg suggested that another reason for the lack of participation might be because many of the WCC students have their own professional headshots.

“Once the students on the Princeton campus start to participate and contribute, then it will really come together,” said Borg.