In a recent email sent to all of the Upper School, Numidian revealed a new format for the 2024-2025 yearbook. At some point during the year, Numidian advisor and Lakeside English teacher Shaz Salah had elected to eliminate all images and design elements from the book, leaving it simply as a list of students’ names. “We made this decision for a wide variety of reasons,” wrote Ms. Salah. “The logistics around getting pictures and designing the pages have always been complex. We are excited to launch this new yearbook format, and we hope that the student body will accept it with open arms.” When asked by Tatler, Ms. Salah refused to make any further comment about the reasoning behind the change.

“I was shocked when they told us,” says Numidian photography editor Nimona N. ’27. In previous years, yearbook photographers would gather a number of pictures, photographing clubs and school events. Now, Nimona feels that there is not much she can contribute to the yearbook.

“Why did Ms. Salah do this? I don’t know, but it probably has something to do with the designers: they’re too hard to manage. None of them ever show up for our required weekly meeting, and when they do, they’re always off-task and complaining that we haven’t uploaded our pictures. I mean, if they want the photos so badly, why don’t they go and take them?”

Numidian designer Norah S. ’27 paints a different picture. “The photographers never ever ever upload their pictures on time. Like how can you come to the meeting every week and not do a thing? Last year, half of the photos were uploaded after the whole yearbook was published! So if you ask me, that’s definitely why they made this change. Getting rid of photos, getting rid of the photographers, it all makes sense.”

From the outside view, it certainly seems like Numidian has a lot of unresolved issues between the staff. On a completely unrelated note, Tatler staff are happy as clams, especially after they acquired Imago, another Lakeside publication. Maybe if Numidian were more like the newspaper…