An Open Book

The Class Album has never been one of the strongest organizations in the College. It usually has amounted to an uninteresting collation of three years of sports, a huge, incredibly dull section of individual picture and not much else. The man who gets stuck the editor's job must either be a genius at getting things-done or write it-himself.

Prospects for the 1950 book don't look any better. The Class Committee appointed two men to head the Album staff. The appointment never was approved by the President of the student Council, one of the people who is supposed to oversee the choice under the Paul Report which the Council adopted last spring. And the two editors, who are without previous College publication experience, have only a skeleton staff with which to begin a job that could take a well-coordinated group more than a year to finish.

Album troubles won't vanish completely even if the Class Committee and the Council do everything they're supposed. The problem is one of content more than anything else-a one-class book, put together by a one-year staff, can't be a topnotch publication. Freshmen interested in that type of work are drained off by the Red Book, and the late organization of the senior book always makes ontime publication nearly impossible. The '46 album, admittedly upset by the war, isn't out yet; the '47-'48 book, with energetic and skillful management, will be lucky to be out this June.

A complete reorganization of the Album setup seems to be the only way out of the quagmire. It should not be a completely "senior" book--it would have much more interest if it were angled to a year, not a class. Some copies might even be sold to undergraduates, especially freshmen, and the traditionally harassed business manager could probably squeeze out some more advertising if there was a chance that the readership would stay in Cambridge for another year or more.

The key to any reorganization would have to be the staff. If competitions were opend to freshmen and sophomores, most writing could be done by juniors who would then be free of the less creative tasks. The senior members would be able to devote their time to editing and handling publication. If men could be trained in the staff for two or even three years before they bcame executives, the Album would have a fighting chance to arrive before Commencement each year.