FLORIDA — A nearly three-month-long saga involving theyearbook at Florida A&M University has apparently come toan end.
Administrators, who previously had prevented the book frombeing distributed, have agreed to allow the yearbook to be passedout to students without further delay, editor Tiffany Hayes said.
The distribution of the 2000-01 yearbook had been halted inDecember by administrators who objected to grammatical errorsand the book’s cover, which was gray instead of orange and green,the school’s colors.
Holly McGee, editor of the 2000-01 book, also speculated thatthe inclusion of her editor’s note, which questioned the unexplaineddisappearance of $10,000 from the yearbook’s account, had a rolein the administration’s decision.
University President Henry Lewis had originally stipulatedthat staffers correct 15 grammatical errors before circulatingthe book, eventually agreeing that the school would fund the nearly$2,000 in costs associated with making the changes.
Hayes said she was in the process of making the changes whenshe received word that the school would permit distribution ofthe book in its original form after all.
"I’m not sure who authorized it," she said. "Wehave a new adviser right now [Henry Kirby] and [he] told me thatwe could pass out the books. I don’t know who authorized it orwhere it came from but that’s how the information got to me."
Neither Kirby nor Lewis returned requests for comment at thetime this article was posted.
Hayes credited the Student Press Law Center for the administration’schange of heart.
"I’m positive that a lot of the reason that they’re lettingus do this is because of [the SPLC’s] support," she said."And I know that [the administration] talked to the generalcounsel of the school and I think that he advised them to letus put this book out."
Read our previous coverage.
- Fla. A&M agrees to pay for yearbook corrections News Flash, 2/7/2002
- Fla. university prohibits release of yearbook News Flash, 1/23/2002