When photos from The Zoo have long been stashed away, one morememory outlives a Simpson student’s college days-the yearbook.

For students at many other colleges, yearbooks are a thing ofthe past.

“Because of budget constraints, only three or four othercolleges in Iowa have yearbooks,” said Carol Carder, the Zenithadvisor. “It says a lot about Simpson.”

According to Carder, the cost of printing a yearbook is between$21,000 and $22,000. That cost does not include film, developing,salaries for the art director, editor, advisor, computer programsand travel to the fall conference.

Simpson won two national awards in the past five years for theZenith. Most recently was third place for Best of Show in 2003.They received the award at the Associated Collegiate Press NationalMedia Conference in Dallas for the work of Sharon Albright Baltes,the editor; Jessica Braunshweig, the art director; Amanda Kost, thebusiness manager; and Carol Carder the advisor. Simpson competeswith 144 pages in the category of small yearbooks (under 299pages).

“What made this better than those in years past, was a lot moreeditorials,” said Carder. “Before they were extended captions, butlast year there were a lot more stories. There was a professionaland consistent design.”

The theme for the yearbook is determined early. According tosenior Sara Cowden, editor of the 2003-04 Zenith, the new theme is”With These Hands.”

“I try to remind the staff that more than turning in anassignment, this is something a lot of people will be reading,”said Cowden. “Thirty years down the road, it still means somethingto someone so we should do a good job and take responsibility.”