yearbook – Houghton STAR

Rise of The Boulder

by Jiana Martin '26

For the past 100 years, The Boulder has been Houghton University’s (HU) yearbook. It was founded in 1924 and named in commemoration of a memorial boulder located across from Fancher Hall near the Houghton sign. The boulder marks the grave of Copperhead, the last Seneca man to live in Houghton, N.Y.

The Seneca tribe—a part of Allegany country’s original inhabitants— were forced from the Genesee Valley onto reservations during the Westward Expansion. Copperhead refused to leave because he claimed he was never paid for his land. He became a local icon and lived off charity until his death in 1864 at 120-years-old (he claimed). Copperhead was originally buried at the intersection of Centerville and Old River Road, but in 1910 his remains were moved to the top of campus when his burial site was beginning to be destroyed by the creek. As a proper memorial, Leonard Houghton (Willard J. Houghton’s son) donated the boulder that still sits there today.

The Boulder was faithfully published by students for 91 consecutive years until 2015. Student involvement in the yearbook decreased and yearbooks were also absent for 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2022. In 2023, The Boulder was re-established by a group of students and made an official campus club. There was some pushback about re-starting the yearbook as involvement and sales have decreased over the past years. IBISWorld, a research firm, estimated a 4.7% decline in sales from yearbook publishing industries to schools.

Despite the pushback, the dedicated yearbook staff created the 2024-2025 edition and is now working on the 2025-2026 edition.

“The yearbook is how we treasure the memories that we make in college,” said Senior Jo Borges Edwards ‘25, the managerial editor of The Boulder. “Years from now, we might barely remember the members of our student organization or athletic team, but we will always be able to go to the yearbook to relive those memories.”

The Boulder staff want all classes to be included, which is why although the “yearbook has historically been targeted toward seniors” Borges Edwards said that “since we [The Boulder staff] restarted the organization in Fall 2023, we have had the goal of making a yearbook that includes everyone because we are all Houghton.”

Zoe Zachery ‘27 (a managerial assistant) and Ethan Scally ‘27 (a member of the managerial team and photographer) also believe the yearbook is an important part of HU.

“Life moves so quickly that sometimes we might forget about the little things that happen. By having a yearbook, we are given the chance to hold on to those memories and look back on them for years to come,” said Zachery.

Scally added that the yearbook “holds all the memories made on campus either with friends, at events, and/or just everyday life.”

It has been fulfilling for Borges Edwards to have the opportunity to put together people’s best memories. Zachery finds joy in the opportunity to form connections with various people she has not met before.

“I love taking pictures and getting them so that we, as a community and ‘family,’ have a memento of our times in college because, as they say, these are the best days of our life,” Scally reflected.

Help preserve Houghton memories by submitting your photos to The Boulder at boulder@houghton.edu. ★

Houghton Students Revive Yearbook

For the past two years, Houghton has lacked in one of the quintessential college institutions: the yearbook. This year, however, Michael Carpenter ’17 has gathered a team of Houghton students to produce a yearbook for the 2016-2017 year. Noting that “it’s sad that Houghton didn’t have that for a couple of years,” Carpenter has taken the initiative to revive the yearbook. “We have to kick-start it,” said Michael Green ’17, a yearbook team member.

Photo by: Nate Moore

Both Green and Carpenter are prepared to “kick-start” Houghton’s yearbook, having had previous experience with yearbooks in high school. “I loved it,” Carpenter said. “I thought it was a great opportunity to practice graphic design and photography with the end result being something special for a lot of people.” He has gathered a group of students who are also excited and dedicated. Seth Pearson ’20, another member of the yearbook team, expressed, “I feel like I am part of something special by helping to bring it back.” Green noted the visible signs of progress. “We’ve had photographers at a lot of events lately,” he said, and added“I’ve been organizing what pages might go where.” The team is also in contact with Houghton’s clubs and teams, which they hope to clearly represent. “We’re trying to make it as comprehensive and accurate a compilation as can be,” Green said.

While Carpenter noted the progress of the yearbook, he also expressed the difficulty of taking initiative to revive the yearbook. “It has been more complicated than I’ve wanted it to be,” he said. Because of the lapse in years of producing a yearbook, a transition process is lacking. “It’s not as much passing the baton as refashioning the baton,” Green explained. Yet Carpenter looks forward to the finished product. “I enjoy the process,” he said. “ Having something to take home, that physical book, makes all the behind the scenes work worth it to me.” He added that the revived yearbook will include “pieces of Houghton yearbooks past,” such as old photography and design.

With the fall semester nearly at an end, the yearbook team is beginning to look forward to the finished product. “Soon we’ll be working a lot on taking students’ orders, advertising, that sort of thing,” Carpenter said. “We’re hoping that when we’re ready to take orders, students will be excited to do so.” He estimates being ready to take orders at the beginning of the spring semester, and emphasized that they are striving for an affordable price.

The team does recognize the concern for the value of yearbooks in the face of social media. “Considering how saturated our lives are with social media, yearbooks might seem out of date,” Green acknowledged. Yet he and Carpenter both stand by the benefits of a yearbook beyond social media. “A yearbook represents everyone,” said Green. “It better depicts a whole of what goes on at Houghton rather than the little snapshot they might get in day to day life.”