Some students may be surprised or even disappointed to find out that they can no longer get their pictures taken for the yearbook, let alone receive one at all.

In fact, the last yearbook to be printed was in the spring of 2009.

“The issue is that not a lot of people were interested in it,” said Nicole Dyer, director of student life.

The last time the yearbook was printed, only 222 students got their pictures taken and benefitted from the keepsake. Out of a student body of around 2,100, that makes up only about one-tenth.

When Dyer took over the yearbook and became adviser of “Pine Whispers” in its final year, she decided to look at exactly how many people were interested in receiving a yearbook or having their picture taken, and did the math. This was when the possibility of an unnecessary expense became quite evident.

“The cost to print something like this was really extraordinary, compared to the number of students who actually wanted the book,” Dyer said.

“The allocation for the yearbook was $32,000 a year.”

Without the printing of the yearbooks, the student activity fee of $220 has not been reduced; however, according to Dyer, that money has been reallocated to the other organizations that receive the fees, such as Campus Activities Board, Residence Life programming and the Ashland University Jazz Orchestra.

Dyer said that “Pine Whispers” tried to do everything possible to appeal to students and market the yearbook. They even tried placing a photographer in Convo during busy times of the day, so that students wouldn’t have to set up an appointment or go somewhere special.

The determination and struggle to keep “Pine Whispers” didn’t exactly bring about the effects that Dyer and others had hoped for.

“We did struggle with it a little bit because we wanted to make sure that we weren’t necessarily taking something away from the students,” Dyer said.

“[S]till, we weren’t getting the response that we had in past years before Facebook,” she added.

Dyer believes that Facebook is a major influence on the lack of the yearbook’s popularity.

“They can kind of archive their own lives,” she said. “Before Facebook was popular, we were able to get more people to respond to the yearbook. But now, I’m not sure that people find it valuable.”

Hallie Dahlhofer, a senior and former co-editor of “Pine Whispers,” is a little disappointed to not have a yearbook, but feels that the clubs and activities at AU’s small university are not always embraced with a high level of enthusiasm and competition, making it difficult to create a great product.

“The student body themselves were unwilling to sit for a free snapshot,” Dahlhofer said.

“Doing this would get them in the yearbook for free, [and] it would be printed in color and sent to their house for free. That is the student body speaking loud and clear that they are not interested in this kind of memento.”

Dahlhofer feels that a yearbook simply goes in and out of trend and Dyer believes this is the result of the changing times.

When Dyer spoke to the company that “Pine Whispers” had a contract with, they said that this seemed to be a trend occurring at other universities as well.

Other avenues have been looked at in terms of replacing the yearbook. Online options have been considered as well as the potential for a CD to be made as an alternative, but there hasn’t been a student initiative to pursue these other choices.

Seniors will still be able to have their pictures taken in their caps and gowns when a photographer shoots images of each graduate at commencement.

If students are interested in getting the “Pine Whispers” group to return or creating another student organization to produce a yearbook product, they would need to fill out a charter application.

According to Dyer, if enough students say they want the yearbook back, are willing to have their pictures taken and will support it, they would look into it.

“We want to do what students want,” Dyer said.