Production of free yearbooks for University of Connecticut graduates could come to a halt if Nutmeg Publishing doesn’t receive a fee increase, the executive director said.
Nutmeg Publishing Executive Director Jack Wright said that Nutmeg’s current five-year contract can’t be funded past the 2026-27 academic year if the board of trustees doesn’t increase their portion of funding from the student activity fee.
“I just feel like now only half of the student body is going to get their yearbook, and I think that’s a pretty glaring issue that only I am thinking about,” Wright said. “All of a sudden there’s no yearbook for the class of 28-29, who knew that Nutmeg exists, are anticipating getting their free yearbook, but because Nutmeg is so underfunded there is a very real chance that they don’t get that.”
Financial constraints may force Nutmeg to either stop printing the yearbook or print one of a lot lower quality, Wright said. He added how quality has already been going down due to their choice of a cheaper contract with a 250-page limit, which increasingly has less space due to rising enrollment.
Nutmeg chose a five-year printing contract with Jostens at an annual rate of $110,000, which Wright said sums up to about $39 to produce a yearbook for each graduate. He said that it currently costs Nutmeg more to produce a yearbook than they receive in the $32 of student fees paid during a student’s entire time at UConn.
Nutmeg’s funding deficit led Wright to become a student member of the Student Activity Services and Fee Advisory Committee (SASFAC) to help advocate for a $3 increase from $4 to $7 per semester.
“I know that the business manager of the Daily Campus was on board for two straight years and got the Daily Campus a fee increase, so I thought I’d take a page out of [Naiiya Patel’s] book and try that,” Wright said.
Wright said that as a student member of SASFAC, he took issue with the way in which Nutmeg’s application for a fee increase was handled.
“Ultimately the SASFAC decision hasn’t gone Nutmeg’s way, for reasons that I personally don’t agree with,” Wright said. He explained how during negotiations for the fee increase he felt as though Nutmeg was being held to a different standard than other campus organizations.
One example Wright gave was through SASFAC’s recommendations for Nutmeg to manage the financial challenges by not sending a yearbook out to every single graduating senior as they’ve been doing since 2002, according to NBC news. Wright said the SASFAC process is supposed to be for student organizations to explain how much money is needed for organizations to continue their current level of programming.
“[SASFAC’s] whole thing has been wanting to make [Nutmeg] do an opt in, which I believe is overstepping in the process,” Wright said, adding that he’d be open to discussing an opt-in process without making it a condition for a fee increase. “It feels as though SASFAC is not adhering to their own mission as the board by not respecting what our current level of programming is.”
I haven’t felt like there’s been a need to submit a letter before… but I just feel like over the last few years Nutmeg has worked so hard and done everything the committee has asked for
Krista O’Brien, Director of Trustee Student Organization Support (TSOS)
SASFAC not considering Nutmeg’s current level of programming isn’t the only issue Wright had with the committee when applying for the funding increase. He said changes to the SASFAC staff before the final decision was made added to the frustration.
“The head of the SASFAC board was fired in between the hearings and when the board actually voted,” Wright said, referring to David Clokey. “Him and I really talked quite a bit, and he really had an understanding of what Nutmeg needed, and I think he was quite sympathetic.”
University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz confirmed that Clokey’s employment as an incumbent assistant vice president for the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs ended with the elimination of his role.
“The UConn Division of Student Life & Enrollment recently streamlined its organizational structure to achieve operation and fiscal efficiencies, including the elimination of two assistant vice president positions and the redistribution of those duties,” Reitz said. “UConn deeply appreciates their service and to the university and its students.”
Krista O’Brien, the director of Trustee Student Organization Support (TSOS), said she sent a letter to SASFAC advocating for Nutmeg due to her role overseeing the Tier III organizations that receive funds from the student activity fees.
“I haven’t felt like there’s been a need to submit a letter before… but I just feel like over the last few years Nutmeg has worked so hard and done everything the committee has asked for,” O’Brien said about her involvement in the SASFAC process.
O’Brien also said SASFAC wasn’t considering Nutmeg’s current level of programming when she sat in SASFAC hearings.
“I think that the university can suggest that as an option to Nutmeg,” O’Brien said about the opt-in process for graduates to receive yearbooks. “We can’t compel them if Nutmeg doesn’t want to do that. I don’t think that’s a reason to withhold a fee increase from them.”
Rejections for the fee increases didn’t directly cite the opt-in program, but Wright said odd reasons for the rejections, like postal issues, made him feel as though SASFAC was lying about their reasoning.
“We occasionally get some back. We get a lot of returns from China, for example, and into Taiwan and Korea. A lot of international students here, [their] books do get sent back,” Wright said. “That’s a custom thing, that’d be way beyond the scope of my job.”
Nutmeg has previously tried to contact the UConn administration about the importance of funding the yearbook by bringing up its importance to the Alumni Center and the UConn archives. Wright said that the previous editor-in-chief, Josie Simon, presented an old yearbook to Dan Toscano during a board of trustees meeting last year and he “loved it” when Simon showed Toscano his old yearbook from 1987.
After Wright heard that SASFAC will not recommend a fee increase for Nutmeg, he said he was in contact with someone in the administration who said they’d talk with him, but Wright hasn’t gotten a reply to his email for two weeks.
“We’re one of the oldest organizations on campus. We’ve been here since 1915 producing the yearbook every year, and we think that the work we’ve done over the last 110 years should be respected in the form of support and an increase for Nutmeg,” Wright said.
Wright said he plans to present at the next board of trustees meeting scheduled for April 29, according to UConn’s website.