To see a video on what students think of this year’s Gumbo, click here.
Gumbo editor Sheila de Guzman prepared a small stack of yearbooks when she saw three students walking toward her in front of Lockett Hall last week. While two people reached for their yearbooks, the third protested and pulled at their arms.Since its release last week, the Gumbo staff has been flooded with angry phone calls and personal attacks from students upset by the yearbook’s portrayal of University student life.On several pages of the publication, including a two-page spread near the center of the book, are pictures of students engaging in alleged drug consumption. Other photographs, which depict sexually suggestive scenes and cases of heavy drinking, are also part of the controversy.”When you think of a yearbook, you expect it to be funny and upbeat,” said Jessi Dale, history freshman. “You wouldn’t think that they would have drug-related photos.”The Gumbo office’s answering machine has filled up with angry messages from affronted students. Many of the callers asked how they could get their money back.De Guzman said the idea of students getting refunded is ridiculous and impossible.Other callers demanded the immediate firing of those responsible for the book. De Guzman said University employees cannot fire anyone over content because the Gumbo is a student-run organization.”The people who make the most noise are the people who are upset,” said Gumbo photographer Scott Becktrom. “The majority of the comments we’ve gotten have been pretty immature.”Ryan Grush, mass communication senior, said he was  surprised to see the drug-friendly content in the middle of the book because drugs are not as prominent on campus as they are in other universities.”Drugs are there. They’re on campus, but nobody talks about it,” said Ginger Gibson, former Daily Reveille columnist and former managing editor of the Gumbo. “You just don’t hear about it.”Max Kelly, mathematics senior, said he didn’t like some of the yearbook’s content. Kelly said some of the darker pictures in the book did not seem like yearbook material.The Gumbo staff defended its choice to include photographs they knew would be controversial on the grounds of journalistic truth.”I’m not going to withhold the truth,” de Guzman said. “We aren’t going to exploit the          content of the photos, but we won’t lie about it.”After digging through archived editions of the Gumbo, the staff decided to model the 2008 edition after the style prevalent in the books from the 1970s.”We liked the freedom, the fun and that no-shit attitude from the 1970s Gumbos,” de Guzman said.Former Gumbo editor Trey Pentecost said nothing in the 2008 edition has ever been in the yearbook before. By comparison to past years, he said the pictures in this year’s edition were tame.—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]