MANSFIELD, PA— After an absence of 25 years, the Mansfield University yearbook, the Carontawan, is back.
“It’s an incredible record of all the things that happen within a year,” Editor-in-Chief Andrew Putt said when asked why it’s important to bring the Carontawan back. “It has an ability to bring people together and keep memories archived in a way that is so unique, even in a digital age. This tells the story of not only each student, but the entire university.”
The student-led resurrection does show the advances in technology since the yearbook was last published. While a yearbook staff has been assembled to do the traditional work of writing, editing and taking pictures, everyone on campus can be involved by downloading an app, replayit.com, and submitting pictures and videos.
“The program works similar to Facebook, it has a tagging option, face recognition software, a place for comments, and even a place where members can like a photo posted to the site,” Putt said. “All pictures and videos will get saved on the site and at the end of the year will become a ‘digital time capsule’ that can be accessed by the people who buy the book that year.”
The hard-cover version of the new Carontawan will be 168 pages and follow the year at MU in chronological order.
“Getting students interested in something that hasn’t been on campus for 25 years, especially with a name like Carontawan; they don’t know how to say it, they don’t know how to spell it and they don’t know what it means, has been interesting” Putt said. “Our ability to not only sell the brand, but sell the book has been exciting. We have a lot of people who are interested.”
For the record, in several editions of the yearbook, Carontawan is defined as an Indian word meaning “small town on a big hill.” For Putt and everyone else involved in the project, it has come to mean community. To that end, plans call for each graduating senior to receive a free copy of the Carontawan.
“They can take that with them as our way of saying thank you for being a part of this community, thank you for making Mansfield a better place while you were here,” Putt said.
Information on ordering copies of the yearbook will be made available later in the academic year.
Putt credits the Student Government Association (SGA) and Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Chris Bridges for supporting the project.
Past editions of the Carontawan, as well as other Mansfield publications, have been digitized and are available online at archive.org/details/mansfieldu