Almost two months into the fall semester, Part I of The Guide to the Perplexed - the section devoted information about Yeshiva, New York City, and other useful facts - finally debuted on campus. Part II of the joint student council publication, which containing the student directory, is slated to appear in the upcoming weeks. As was the case in previous years, however, a number of difficulties have stalled the completion and distribution of The Guide.

Traditionally, it is the job of the presidents of the Yeshiva College and Stern College Student Councils to choose the Editors-in-Chief of The Guide at the conclusion of the spring semester. But, due to a general lack of communication between the two councils, it was only in the middle of the summer that Avi Soroka, who edited last year's guide, and Dani Weiss -his Stern counterpart - were retained to assume the position of Editor-in-Chief for another year. Weiss testified to the haphazardness of her appointment, stating that "because there was no one else from Stern, I was appointed Editor-in-Chief, but I was really just Soroka's assistant." The lack of communication also led to the formation of an undersized publication staff. "Usually we have a huge staff," remarked Soroka. "But this year, due to last minute planning, we had to ask friends to join our makeshift staff."

Soroka noted that arranging Part I of The Guide is no easy feat and requires a significant amount of time. While some of The Guide is recycled from year to year, much of the information needs to be updated. The staff must locate and document the contact information for numerous new establishments as well as remove the information of those that have shut down. According to Soroka, the amount of work involved in compiling Part I of The Guide, coupled with the delay in finalizing the staff, was largely responsible for the fact that Part I of The Guide was not ready at the outset of the fall semester, a feat that last year's staff managed to accomplish.

Despite the limited time frame allotted them for editing Part I, Soroka, Weiss and their staff had completed edited Part I of The Guide by September 10th. But the terrorist attacks of September 11th postponed printing for almost a week. And so, although The Guide was ready for distribution the following week, the editors decided that, with Rosh Hashana and the holidays imminent, Part I of The Guide would be distributed after the Sukkot vacation.

Soroka, however, claims that other factors also conspired, this year and in previous years, to delay the printing of The Guide. Specifically, he mentioned the lack of consistent editing protocol from one year to the next as a significant obstacle to expedient publication of The Guide. "There is no established and fool-proof way [to get it out on time]," explained Soroka, "every year is a new entity and editing progresses by the way the editor wants it to."

While Weiss did find editing The Guide to be an "exciting experience," she noted that the process was "very stressful and unreasonable, very hard and very rushed." Complicating matters was the fact that the Stern Student Council refused to provide Weiss with the pager she requested in order to allow her to communicate with her staff. When questioned about the decision, Stern College Student Council President Elana Soleimani refused comment.

Students who wish to have their contact information included in Part II of The Guide must sign up via the Internet at guide.yucs.org. The Guide's staff has promised to publicize the details of the process, though students will only be allotted a week to submit the required data.

As of now, student response to The Guide has been somewhat mixed. While many do find it useful and informative, others feel that an earlier emergence is key. "I find myself using The Guide from time to time," explained Joe Goldfarb, a Yeshiva College. "But having it earlier would help with the transition from the summer to school." Kay Holmes, a Stern junior, agreed: "I always look to The Guide as a source of information, but if I don't have it, I can't use it."