Campus Photo braves last-minute rush

Thursday, January 28, 1999

Campus Photo braves last-minute rush

SENIORS: Procrastinating students not all smiles

in long wait for portraits

By Neal Narahara

Daily Bruin Contributor

Graduating seniors made their way to Ackerman Union’s A-level
early Monday morning to schedule an appointment at the Associated
Students of UCLA’s Campus Photo studio.

This week marks the last opportunity for graduating seniors to
get their pictures taken at Campus Photo in time to be included in
the BruinLife yearbook.

Many of these seniors tried before, in some cases repeatedly, to
get an appointment, but they were told to try back at a later
date.

"I tried three times (before today), and it was full," said
Susanna Chan, a sociology student who plans to graduate this
spring.

As the year progressed, portrait sittings have been more tightly
booked in response to the looming deadline.

Robert Hewett, the manager and only photographer at Campus
Photo, attributes the rush problems to people waiting until the
last minute to schedule an appointment.

"They’re not coming in when they’re supposed to," Hewett said.
"It’s procrastination, plain and simple. It happens every year. We
have a capacity for 3,000 sittings and we haven’t even broken 2,000
yet."

"Given the conditions (right now), that’s all they can handle,"
said Justine Manzano, BruinLife editor in chief.

Adding to the shortage of available times is a 25 percent
no-show rate. As a result, Campus Photo’s policy has been to hold a
space for five minutes past the appointment time before canceling
the session.

Campus Photo is a relatively small studio for its volume, with
one photographer and one room in which the photos are taken. In the
1997-1998 academic year, 5,750 undergraduate students
graduated.

Hewett works closely with the BruinLife staff and tries to set
the yearbook portrait deadlines for Campus Photo in order to avoid
printing delays.

Monday morning marked the beginning of "rush week" for the
studio during which time it tries to schedule as many appointments
as possible to accommodate latecomers.

Normally, the studio does 32 sittings per day. During rush week,
that number jumps to 75 or 80.

According to Hewett, Campus Photo tried to encourage people to
get their portraits taken earlier in the year.

Since the beginning of the school year, Campus Photo has been
running daily ads, offering discounts and encouraging graduating
students to get their portraits taken early.

Seniors who have their photographs taken during rush week must
come in person at 8:30 a.m. and are scheduled on a first-come,
first-served basis.

In the interest of time, they are limited to four poses without
a cap, and they are not given the opportunity to choose the picture
that will be included in the yearbook.

"It’s a little petty," said Naomi Nakanishi, a graduating senior
studying Japanese. "I don’t think it’s too much trouble to pick our
own pose."

Beginning last year, the studio started splitting seniors into
alphabetical groupings and assigning the groups a week to get their
pictures taken. These groupings were relatively successful,
increasing the number of timely photos by 20 percent.

Despite Campus Photo’s efforts, some students complained that
they were unable to obtain an appointment during their allotted
times.

Hewett attributes these complaints to procrastination and a
misinterpretation of the grouping dates as scheduling times rather
than sitting times.

Campus Photo, the campus photo studio, has a virtual monopoly on
portraits for UCLA’s graduating seniors, and students have little
choice than to endure the perceived crowding problems.

Although graduating seniors can go to other studios to get their
portraits taken and still be included in the yearbook, Hewett does
not believe that most of them are aware of it.

Graduating seniors cite convenience as a reason they go to
Campus Photo.

"There are less than a handful that go to outside vendors,"
Manzano said. "I would say more than 99 percent get their portraits
taken (at Campus Photo)."

Hewett said that those seniors who complained did not try to get
an appointment early enough and came in after all the time slots
had been filled.

Despite the photo studio’s efforts, it has been unsuccessful in
eliminating the last-minute rush.

So far this week, only about 30 to 40 people a day have tried to
schedule a sitting, according to Hewett. Campus Photo policy is to
take the first 70 students.

Hewett said he expects many students to procrastinate this week
as well.

"Probably Friday, I’ll end up having to turn people away,"
Hewett said.

Although yearbook portrait deadline for Campus Photo is this
Friday, the deadline for photos from outside studios will be some
time in mid-February.CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin

Robert Hewett, the photographer for Campus Photo, hands out
photo appointment slips to seniors at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday. This is
the final week to have photos shot for publication in the
yearbook.

Comments, feedback, problems?

© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]