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The Alcalde, Sam Houston State University's yearbook, was first published in 1910. People liked it. Time passed. People still liked it. People still bought it, and so on. Some 80 years later this trend stopped. A survey of students in the late 1990s indicated that a 60% majority of the students did not purchase the Alcalde. Low sales, inadequate on-campus income, decreased advertising, high journalism costs, and an unstable budgetary allowance contributed to its lack of importance and interest.
President Marks said at the time that perhaps the book's greatest benefit was "allowing a former student to look back with nostalgia to the time he or she was a student on the SHSU campus. But, of course, that can only be done if the student purchased a copy of the book, and for quite a few years very few have opted to do so. I am not one who likes to give up tradition easily, but the lack of interest shown in saving it in the well-publicized election indicates that it is not something students value."
The last official Alcalde, covering the 1997-98 school year, was distributed at the beginning of the spring 1999 semester. However, in conjunction with the university's 125th anniversary, a decision was made to revive the annual. As part of its return in 2003, a special segment was included detailing the six years missed by its absence. And so it goes.
| 1910-19 |
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| 1920-29 |
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| 1930-39 |
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| 1940-49 |
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| 1950-59 |
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| 1960-69 |
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| 1970-79 |
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| 1980-89 |
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| 1990-99 |
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