Redbook Trial

At present the freshman Redbook is on trial for its life. The Student Council expects a full report on its current investigation of the Redbook sometime next term, and growing Council opposition may possibly result in total abandonment of the Redbook after this year.

Such a step would be wise. In the last few years the Redbook has lost money for lack of good advertising in its pages, and comparatively low sale of copies. Moreover, the Redbook all but duplicates the freshman Register. The Register, published in the middle of the freshman year, contains the pictures and biographies of Class members, as well as coverage of Class activities to date. The Redbook contains almost exactly the same material, with the exception that its accounts of freshman activities cover the entire year. One may point cut, however, that the Class Album does this adequately. In fact, the Redbook is so like the Register in function and content, that its appearance at the beginning of Sophomore year is little short of redundant.

Arguments for some sort of freshman document are perfectly sound. Its chief value lies in its photographs, which enable men to look up familiar faces and widen acquaintances. But there is little use for two such records, especially when they are so alike and one does not appear until sophomore year. Of the two, the Register, coming while freshman year is still young, certainly is the more valuable.

For a year, the Council has been considering some sort of concrete recommendation, hoping to apply it to the '52 Redbook. But the investigation has delayed so long that the '52 Redbook has been given the go-ahead, and any change in policy will have to wait another year. The Council now expects its report sometime next April. Dean Leighton, while supporting the Redbook, now indicates that he would be willing to consider a Council proposal to eliminate it. Under the circumstances, it seems only reasonable that the Council should recommend discontinuing the Redbook and consolidating freshman records into a more worthwhile Register.