Though Nicholls has about 7,000 students, La Pirogue, the yearbook section of Student Publications, only orders 1,500 yearbooks, half of which end up in the trash every year.The yearbooks, paid for by the students through a University assessed fee of $10 every semester, cost about $100-$200 per book to print, La Pirogue editor Shelly Waguespack, education junior from Thibodaux, said. Even though students receive the books for cheap, Waguespack said, they still aren’t picking them up.

“We can’t recycle them because of the paper they’re printed on and the binding, so we throw them in the trash every year to make room for the new ones,” Waguespack said.

“We order the minimum amount the printing company lets us order,” Anne Toloudis, Student Publications administrative assistant, said.

Waguespack said ordering a yearbook for each student would just be unrealistic.

Near the end of October every year, new yearbooks arrive at the La Pirogue office. To make room for the boxes, the old ones get thrown out. A few boxes, containing about 10 yearbooks each, are saved just in case, Waguespack said.

The new yearbooks are then distributed in the Student Union for a week, Waguespack said. They are already paid for, but students need to sign their names so the department can make sure each student only receives one yearbook. After the week of distribution, students need to request a yearbook at the office of Student Publications. After a year, students should not expect to be able to receive yearbooks, even though a few are saved.

Many students say they do not pick up their yearbooks because they are not in them.

Some students don’t like to take pictures, like Michael Frost, general business senior from Martin, South Dakota, and others, like Chloe East, English senior from Houma, don’t know when they are supposed to.

“I come to school dressed like a bum,” East said. “If I knew when it was, I would come pretty that day.”

Pictures are usually taken at the beginning of November in the Student Union. This year, they will be taken Nov. 3-5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Bowie Room of the Student Union. Pictures only take about five to 10 minutes, because students need to fill out a form with their information, such as major, classification and home town, Waguespack said.

However, only about 300 students get their pictures taken, most of which are graduating seniors, Waguespack said.

For organizations to get in the yearbook, they have to fill out a form so La Pirogue can assign photographers to be at their events. La Pirogue also gets information about events from the University event calendar.

But this year, as an incentive to get students to pick up their yearbooks, La Pirogue will hold a raffle for gift cards to places such as Raising Cane’s and Smoothie King. Students will receive a form with their yearbooks to enter in the raffle.

“Students aren’t involved enough, so they aren’t getting a yearbook,” Toloudis said, “but when they want them 10 years from now, we don’t have them anymore.”

To get your organizations pictures and events in the yearbook, contact Shelly Waguespack in the office of Student Publications on Ardoyne Drive, by phone at (985) 448-4260 or by e-mail at [email protected].