AASU creates new annual publication

The black organizations on campus, headed by the African American Student Union (AASU), are moving towards creating an annual publication to commemorate the events on campus that impacted the Black community. This "yearbook" will be a combination of a yearbook and a thought-book and bring together historical and current publications.

"Every year, AASU used to produce the 'Heritage Unbounded' which was a compilation of stories and poems submitted by students to remember the year," said James Holder, AASU president.

The yearbook will not follow the portrait style of yearbook that is common in schools and universities. It will consist of about 150 pages and consist of student profiles, as well as recaps of significant events on campus.

Support was derived from alumni, who were enthusiastic about the thought of creating a yearbook.

AASU currently produces a monthly newsletter called the "Hueman Press." The organizations will use the resources from that program towards the effort to create the yearbook.

"We budgeted the project at less than 10 dollars per book. We expect to produce less than 300 copies of the book. We did not expect to get much campus support for the project so we are not going to SGA to seek funding," Holder said.

The books will be sold below cost to AASU members and at-cost to non-AASU members.

"The reason for this is to encourage members of AASU to get a copy of the book," Holder said.

According to Holder, the focus of the yearbook is different.

"There is a much smaller circulation. We are focusing on the major events and major contributors within the Black community," Holder said.

The main motivation for creating a yearbook is not the lack of coverage of the Black community within the Blueprint, but the lack of representation of the committees that make the decisions within the publications.

"There is no one there to voice an opinion," Holder said.

This is the first year of the revived yearbook and there is no guarantee that the publication will be produced according to planned.

"It will probably happen. If we can't produce it exactly as we planned, we will produce some year-end record," Holder said.

AASU is also open to having their publication put into the archives to maintain a documentation of the Black community on campus for future generations.

The organizations may be working with the Living History Center in the future to create an archive of the publication.