DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997                TAG: 9703240036

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY GARY KEFFER, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   97 lines

ODU MAY CLOSE BOOK ON FUNDING FROM SENATE FOR ITS SCHOOL ANNUAL

Old Dominion University's Student Senate, which last year cut funds for student organizations such as the student yearbook and campus newspaper, is considering eliminating all funding for the yearbook next year.

Debra Freeman, the editor-in-chief of the Laureate yearbook, which this year received $21,300, said the cut could kill the publication. But Jeff Rowley, the student president, says the Laureate, which last year distributed fewer than 150 copies, doesn't reach enough students to justify the expense.

The Student Senate, which parcels out more than $180,000 in student fees to campus organizations, is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the 1997-98 budget for student groups.

But Freeman has proposed a compromise - which Rowley said the senate will consider - for $10,550. The Laureate, in turn, will promise to sell more copies.

The Laureate gives yearbooks to graduating seniors; others must pay $25 a copy. Last year, Freeman said, fewer than 130 yearbooks were distributed to the roughly 1,000 graduating seniors, and none was sold. This year, the Laureate has sold about 25 copies so far, she said. Freeman's proposal says 500 copies will be sold next year.

Rowley said, ``I think it would be a university loss if we didn't have a yearbook. But then again, in the times that we are (in), where everyone is budget-conscious . . . we can't just throw money away for something that doesn't benefit many people.''

But Freeman said the yearbook deserved funding because ``we perform a service for the university.'' The Laureate, she said, is ``the history book of the university. We basically tell the story of what goes on in that year. We record anything from President's Lecture Series to . . . the NCAA. There is no other group on this campus that can do that as effectively as the yearbook can.''

Last spring, Freeman ran unsuccessfully against Rowley for Student Senate president. ``I would like to believe that this is just strictly a business thing,'' she said. ``But again, people carry around their baggage, their emotional baggage . . ., so it's hard to tell.''

Rowley denied that the proposal was motivated by any grudge against Freeman: ``I see, on a professional level, an organization that is milking themselves off the Student Senate. They enjoy what they get, they're not producing enough for the amount of money they are asking for, and their focus is wrong.''

Rowley is not suggesting that the yearbook start charging seniors for books, but he said the Laureate needs to work harder to win alternative sources of money.

Freeman said she could not estimate the total cost to produce the yearbook this year. She said the Laureate has held fund-raisers and hopes to get money from the ODU Alumni Association. But it has had difficulty winning corporate sponsorships and still needs the Student Senate's support.

``None of the businesses up and down Hampton Boulevard have supported us,'' she said. ``The (ODU) bookstore . . . has supported us. We've gotten sponsors like Pepsi to do ads and things of that nature, but the places that you would think would support a yearbook because we're right across the street don't.''

Last year under Rowley's predecessor, Chris Pearson, the Student Senate sharply cut funding for several large student groups. The budget listed funds to the Laureate dropping from $30,300 to $21,300. Pearson and Rowley, who was then vice president, said their goal was to reallocate money to more organizations.

The proposed budget for next year increases funding for some of the organizations that lost money last year, including the Black Student Alliance and the Student Activities Council.

Rowley said much of the reduction to the Laureate last year was made up from other sources, including the allocation for the Student Senate itself. But Freeman said the yearbook has suffered because of the reduction - in color pages and pages overall.

Under Freeman's proposal, the Laureate would publish and distribute 1,100 copies of the yearbook next year. Six hundred would go to seniors for free; an additional 500 would be sold at $25 per copy. The Laureate would include more photographs of underclassmen, to make the book more attractive to non-seniors.

The decision is up to the Student Senate, but Rowley said, ``I have a very strong feeling that the senate will allocate most of, if not all of, what they are asking for.''

Dana D. Burnett, ODU's vice president for student services, has the final say on the budget for student organizations. ``I'm just waiting for it to complete the process before I get involved at all,'' he said. ``It's best at this point to let students work out the recommendation that comes to me, and I will see what the university's position should be.''

Other area colleges have differing policies on yearbook funding and charges.

At Virginia Wesleyan College, everyone - including seniors - is charged $35 a copy, said David E. Buckingham, vice president of student affairs. Roughly 1,000 copies a year are sold, he said, and that covers the bulk of the yearbook's expenses. The college, however, usually provides a couple of thousand dollars in additional funds, he said.

At Norfolk State University, seniors don't have to pay for the yearbook, as long as they pay their $50 graduation fee, said James W. Satterfield, vice president for student affairs. NSU provides about $27,000 to $30,000 a year to its yearbook, said Clementine S. Cone, vice president for finance and business. MEMO: Staff writer Philip Walzer contributed to this story.

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