North Texas Daily

John Hoang | Staff Writer

@jhoang1995

Checking emails, making social media inquires and creating polls to gather data on UNT culture, political science sophomore Hannah Frosch works to create a time capsule that will represent the university’s current state of being.

The capsule will be placed in the walls of the Union building in April and will be opened on the University’s 150th anniversary. Pictures and quotes relevant to current times will represent what UNT meant to a future generation.

Frosch, who is the project manager for Student Government Association, is overseeing the task.

“[We’re] hoping [for] a positive reaction when people see how much UNT has grown,” Frosch said. “To see how we evolved as a university.”

SGA is reaching out to the student body through social media sites and OrgSync, hoping to accurately represent the university’s community and culture. University icons like Scrappy the Eagle will have a spot in the capsule to preserve how events and images changed over time.

“[It’s difficult] trying to represent all of [the] student body,” Frosch said. “[We are] trying to get more input from a diverse student body.”

UNT president Neal Smatresk said he wanted to create a time capsule to represent the campus on UNT’s 125th anniversary, as this project had been done previously.

“Lots of things could change in 25 years,” Frosch said. “Just to see how UNT was and how [much] fun we had thinking of certain things and events.”

SGA originally planned to place the time capsule in the ground, later to be dug up, but then decided to place it in the walls of the Union as a way to represent how the campus will change over time.

“As long as people think, ‘I represent the university as a whole,’ I think I could consider it to be successful,” Frosch said.

The 1988 time capsule sits on a shelve after being dug up in 2015. Hannah Ridings | Senior Staff Photographer

By using polls and interacting with students online, Frosch has been receiving feedback and input from the community SGA wants to represent. Although she gets emails weekly, she said input from students doesn’t feel diverse enough so far to incorporate the entire student body.

“Sometimes people limit themselves, and not every voice is heard,” Frosch said. “Some feel like their voices and opinions don’t matter when they really do.”

At a college with a reputable and well-known music program, some students feel UNT’s musical heritage highlights one of the major elements of campus.

“I feel something that represents the music or artistic aspect of UNT should be placed, like a concert brochure or a poster,” media arts sophomore Marina Jimenez said.

The everyday lives of UNT students have been defined by the culture and technology surrounding them, and others feel the typical day in the life of a student will change.

“I’d put in a message that describes how my everyday life for the last two years went,” media arts junior Alex Alerasoul said on his idea for the time capsule. “Just as a comparison to possible immense changes that will have happened, to affect how daily life would go 25 years from now.”

Like the previous time capsule, which offered a look into the lives of students from an older time, SGA expects the upcoming capsule to capture the essence of contemporary campus life.

“Every picture, every element captures where we are as a student body and [our] culture,” Frosch said.

Student culture and the components that make UNT a community will have a place in the capsule.

“I believe future students will be astonished whenever they open the time capsule for the first time,” integrative studies junior Sam DeLeon said. “I know that all of the future students are going to love all the surprises that we have placed in it.”

Featured Image: The time capsule buried in 1988 sits in the archives on the forth floor of the library. Hannah Ridings | Senior Staff Photographer