The University is making a time capsule to preserve characteristics of the years 2008 and 2009 for future students to look back on.The new Footsteps project involves a time capsule: putting representative items from a specific time, a collection so people in the future can compare and contrast the past and the present. The Student Engagement Program put out flyers about the time capsule project and asks “the Big Question”: “What will your footprints be?”

Allen Alexander, associate languages and literature professor, is working on the project and said the word “footprints” was chosen because it can be a metaphor for anything. Students can turn in anything for the time capsule that represents 2008-2009. Items in the time capsule can be local or school related. Donations can include movie tickets, compact discs, concert tickets, or anything that would fit in the collection in size (somewhat small) and content (time relevant).

Faculty and students are being asked to discuss this, and student organizations are already making suggestions to Alexander on what they would like to add to the time capsule. Alexander said he will take ideas to the library and discuss with archive workers on what is the best way to present items because the time capsule will be kept in the library archives. It has not yet been decided, but the collection of memorabilia may be publicized to students in ten or twenty years. Alexander said he will discuss when this will be done with library archivists.

This project requires students to look at the past in relation to now. “We need to look at the footprints left behind to see what kind of footprints we want to make,” Alexander said.

Alfred Delahaye, professor emeritus of journalism, said the campus has grown vastly, and the classrooms have become less intimate over the years. The University has also grown in the diversity of its students.

Delahaye has just learned about this project and is disappointed that he may not be around to see the opening of the time capsule. “With time, change is inevitable, so Nicholls will change in the future,” Delahaye said. He also said Nicholls will be great in the future with public support.

According to flyers about the Footsteps projects, ideas need to be submitted to Alexander by Nov. 5. Alexander said he knows he will be getting some ideas from student organizations, but no ideas are definite at this point.