Last semester the University Archives initiated a COVID-19 collecting project: Response and Impact: Perspectives from Trinity University on COVID-19. The purpose of this project is to document the effects the virus and pandemic will have on the institution and the Trinity community.

The project was created with three phases.

    • First, the collection of stories and personal accounts. Students, faculty, and staff were invited to share their personal experiences after the switch to working, teaching, and learning from home in the spring semester.
    • The second phase of the project is to collect documentation created over the course of the spring semester and the summer which details the work involved with moving the functions of Trinity online.
    • The third will be an oral history project, happening at a later time, when more reflection can be made.

As we move into our fifth month of working and interacting with students in this remote environment, the project is shifting to its second phase. The type of information the project seeks is familiar – the final products or outcomes:

    • task force and committee charges
    • meeting agendas and minutes
    • audio video recordings of meetings
    • budgets
    • action plans
    • surveys and executive summaries.

What might be less obvious though is documentation such as email communication that tracks decision making; drafts that are annotated with ideas, suggestions, and changes; handwritten or typed notes and thoughts about course and assignment creation – how those final outcomes were developed.

As faculty and staff members, this project needs your help in making a relevant collection that provides insight to the challenges and discoveries Trinity encountered during this period. Help ensure that this work is not lost to time.

Please reach out to University Archivist Abra Schnur on donating materials at aschnur@trinity.edu.

For more information about this project please visit the LibGuide: “Response and Impact: Perspectives from Trinity University on COVID-19‌”.