Time capsule gives UCCS community glimpse into the past

Oct. 12, 2015

April Wefler
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In December 2014, historians discovered a time capsule buried by Paul Revere and Sam Adams in 1795 under a cornerstone in front of the Massachusetts State House.

Megan Lunsford | The Scribe
On Oct. 8, UCCS’ own time capsule was opened as part of homecoming week. The time capsule was buried in 1988 under the cornerstone in front of the University Center as part of the grand opening.

The UC was expanded in 1988 to include a relocated cafeteria (now Café 65) and Berger Hall, UCCS’ former gymnasium that is now an event space.

The time capsule, a large cylinder, was full of various publications, including the fall 1988 copy of the Writer’s Forum (similar to Riverrun), the summer 1988 precollegiate program book, the 1988/89 Bulletin, programs, calendars and two issues of The Scribe from that year.

Other items in the time capsule were ashes from the 1988 Yellowstone forest fire, an Apple II reference manual, a computer 256k memory board, a Bud Light poster, spirit banners (UC Gold), the athletic department schedule, a paper from the construction company that built the UC, a small commemorative groundbreaking spade and striped orange shorts from the bookstore priced at $19.

Eric Robinson, junior accounting major, thought the time capsule was a great idea.

“It’s really neat to see a snapshot of the past and realize old pictures you see, it’s not black and white, it was a real time and place, a mechanism for the past,” Robinson said.

Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak spoke of the history of the time capsule to begin the event.

“We’re going to create the future today by opening the contents of the past,” she said.

Attendees of the time capsule ceremony included current students, faculty, staff, administration, alumni and former faculty and staff.

Steve Gnadt, former director of the UC, was at the ceremony.

“I think it’s pretty neat to see how the campus has grown and to kind of look back, look at how things were 25 years ago,” said Gnadt, now the associate director for the departments of Administration and Marketing at the University of Maryland.

He said he took the idea of the time capsule to UMD and that the university buried its own time capsule underneath its student union.

“I thought it was wonderful. It looked like it was a great mix of alumni, faculty, staff. There’ve been so many students that have come up to me from when Anthony Cordova (director of MOSAIC) was a student or when I taught here,” Gnadt said.

Shockley-Zalabak thought the ceremony went well.

“I think it was very exciting. It was fun because there were so many people that were here 25 years ago and so many that were not. And to see that I think was great fun,” she said.

After the event, guests were invited to free food on Clyde’s patio and to autograph wine bottles and record their memories for the new time capsule, to be opened on UCCS’ 75th anniversary in 2040.

Tables were set up displaying the contents of the old time capsule and of the new. The goal is to get 50 stories for the 50th anniversary in the new time capsule.