By ANDREA WOOD CRANFORD
Journalism Alumni Association liaison
The Cornhusker yearbook is back.
Rising from the ashes of student apathy, anti-establishment rhetoric and financial woes that weighed so heavily upon it in 1972 when the last volume was issued, the book is reclaiming its rightful status as a campus tradition this year.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs James Griesen and the Nebraska Alumni Association started the restoration effort. And now a 20-student staff, led by senior news-editorial major Sherri Neall, is following through on the book with a projected May delivery date.
Of course, the students are mindful of what has been missed during the 27-year gap. There were Greek yearbooks in the interim (Neall was co-editor of the last one) but no mention of Tom Osborne’s 25-year streak of football success or national championships in football, volleyball, women’s track and men’s gymnastics, no stories about a whole generation of students or the arrival of new colleges, new majors and the computer age...
Nonetheless, the yearbook has a long and storied history at NU. Published sporadically as The Sombrero (no one seems to know the origin of the title) from 1884 through 1906, Volume I of the Cornhusker appeared in 1907. Early editions were full of essays, poems and crudely rendered student art that poked fun at faculty and students, resulting in the post-production censorship of the 1912 book. Yearbooks from the 1920s to the 1960s focused on the familiar — students, studies and sports — while the final three took a somewhat unorthodox approach: two paperbacks in a slipcase (1970), nine magazines and a poster in a box (1971) and an Alice in Wonderland storybook (1972). The 1999 book heralds a return to a traditional format.
–The last time Cornhusker yearbook alumni gathered to reminisce was 1987 when a cooperative College of Journalism/Cornhusker/Daily Nebraskan reunion was held in Lincoln. Another such opportunity is approaching. How about a similar reunion once the college moves into new quarters at the Security Mutual building on Centennial Mall? Let us know if you are interested.
– Speaking of journalism alumni, we welcomed a new member to the Journalism Alumni Association board of directors this fall. Sara Martens of Papillion is a 1980 graduate who is an account supervisor at Bozell Worldwide in Omaha. She is married to 1979 journalism graduate Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald, and they have a daughter, Alaina, age three.
Your journalism alumni officers for 1998-99 are: Paula Wood Commers, ’74, Omaha, president; Debra Emery, ’77, Omaha, first vice president; Roger Moody, ’73, Lincoln, second vice president; Stacey Switzer Hill, ’90, Omaha, secretary/treasurer; and Rich Claussen, ’82, Lincoln, national board rep.
–The Nebraska Alumni Association welcomed four journalism students as interns during the fall semester. Two of them will stay on through the spring semester.
Fall interns included senior advertising major Carrie Pierce of Lincoln, and senior news-editorial intern Kelly Scott of Norfolk. Pierce joined the association last summer to assist in planning the 25th class reunion and in developing the Cather Society, a new group of successful alumnae. In her role as president of the college’s student advisory board Pierce also serves as student rep to the journalism alumni board. She is vice president of the Student Alumni Association and was recently named SAA/Student Foundation Network National Outstanding Student Leader. Scott wrote alumni and student profiles for Nebraska Magazine. Last summer, she worked for The Forum in Fargo, N.D., where she researched and wrote more than 70 news stories.
Alicia Peters, a senior advertising major from Pender, has been the advertising intern in the alumni communications office since January 1998, working on alumni chapter mailings, advertisements and special communications projects. Peters is active in Advertising Club, volunteering at the YWCA and intramural sports. Angie Klein, a member of the association’s student work force since her freshman year, is a junior news-editorial, broadcasting and marketing major from Battle Creek. She currently works with the Alumni Admissions Program, a program designed to bring alumni into the student recruitment process. She is also an undergraduate assistant for the eastern recruitment team in the NU Office of Admissions, a member of ASUN’s executive committee and chair of the government liaison committee.