Due to rising costs and a low volume of student orders, this year’s edition of the Reveille will be the last published version. The Reveille has recorded over 100 years of Mississippi State University history.
The Reveille‘s name originated from Mississippi A&M’s beginnings as a military school. Reveille, a bugler’s tune that is played during first formation, was often heard around campus.
Senior library associate Betty Self said the Reveille began production because of the school’s need to archive college life. At the beginning of publication, four people worked on the editorial staff: M.W. Chapman, G. H. Alford, T.P. Guyton and W.E. Hearon. By the time the engravers finished with the first publication, only one staff member still attended school; the other three enlisted in the Army during the Spanish-American War.
In 1913, the Reveille’s name was changed to the Private ’13. The yearbook’s name was changed due to a strike by the enlisted students. The ranked officers demoted to the rank of private.
The only year the Reveille did not appear was in 1944, due to World War II. Sixty-three years after the war, the Reveille will halt publication.
Due to low demand, lack of interest and technological advances, more and more college annuals are closing their pages.
Eddie Keith, director of the Colvard Student Union and advisor for the Reveille, said he has noticed a continued decline in interest for the yearbook.
“It just seems like through the years the number of people who have bought books, the number of people who have their picture made to be in the book have just dwindled,” he said.
Reveille co-editor Alayne White said even though almost 17,000 students are enrolled at MSU, only 386 yearbooks had been order as of April 1. She said the amount of orders have gradually declined over the past years.