Help the Clarke Historical Library and the Museum of Cultural and Natural History Preserve CMU’s Pandemic Experiences

To document and preserve the various experiences of the CMU community during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Clarke Historical Library (Clarke) and the Museum of Cultural and Natural History (Museum) encourage CMU members, students, faculty, and staff, on- and off-campus, to share their documented personal experiences during COVID-19 and contribute them to the Clarke and Museum. When future students, scholars, and researchers seek to understand what it was like at CMU during the pandemic, these materials will provide a first-person account.

Submission process:

If you are a current CMU faculty, staff or student please fill out this form. A CMU email is required. Your email will not be shared or sold. You will be required to sign an agreement allowing the Clarke to preserve your submission, and you will receive important information about copyright and the use of your content. The Clarke and the Museum are not obligated to keep everything that is submitted. You can submit materials and the form as often as you like. This project is focused on submissions from individuals or small groups of people.

If you work for a CMU unit and have questions about preserving your office's records, please contact Bryan Whitledge.

If you are a Mount Pleasant, Michigan, community member who is not a current CMU student, faculty, or staff member, with relevant information you wish to donate, please contact clarke@cmich.edu before submitting material.

If you have physical artifacts or object, please contact the Museum at cmuseum@cmich.edu.

Materials in the following formats that could normally be uploaded to Google Drive will be accepted: Images (jpg, png), Videos (mp4, mov), Audio (mp3), and Text (txt, pdf, docx, doc) files. If you want to donate a physical printed or written item, please submit a digital image, and indicate that you wish to give it to the Clarke in the description field of the form. Clarke staff will contact you.

If your submissions are works you created with others, such as interviews or group project, the Clarke requires permission from everyone who contributed to the work, including co-authors, whether students, classmates, friends, and family. We will not retain the material if we do not receive all relevant forms. Only one person needs to attach the files to the form.

Materials will first be reviewed and processed by Clarke staff, so they will not be available to the public immediately.

Campus resources:

For CMU’s updates on the pandemic and available resources, visit https://www.cmich.edu/about/covid-19-information-and-resources.

For informational resources on the United States’ response to COVID-19 see https://libguides.cmich.edu/c.php?g=1010890&p=7517036

What to submit:

Here are some examples of what you may wish to submit:

Students:

• Course assignments you completed related to the pandemic
• Images or videos from moving off-campus due to the pandemic
• Communications with your family about what was happening when campus closed
• Communications with administrators or faculty negotiating issues related to travel, internships, visa status, living arrangements, or food and dining
• Student organization activities that may continue over a distance or volunteer work done in response to the pandemic
• Reactions to campus events being canceled or delayed, including but not limited to: graduation, sports, theatre or musical performances, Study Abroad, or trips
• Your remote learning experience or how your classes changed when they went virtual

Faculty:

• Redesigned course materials for remote delivery, new assignments, or syllabus changes
• Communication with your students and colleagues
• Plans for pausing or adapting research projects while campus was closed

Staff:

• Work you did on-campus as essential employees
• Experiences in student services such as dining halls, dormitories, and other services that shut down
• Messages of encouragement from co-workers and the community
• Changes to your job due to working remotely

Health Care Providers and Patients (CMED and CHP):

• Your experiences preparing for or treating COVID-19 patients
• The effect on your work with patients who need medical care unrelated to COVID-19
• How your workplace, schedule, or job duties have changed
• Your experience being treated for or recovering from the virus

General:

• Journal or diary entries about the impact of the pandemic on your life
• Interviews with friends or family members
• A description of your schedule or routine during quarantine
• Images of your new work space
• What it’s like to work at an essential business or organization

Acknowledgement:

Aspects of this project were adapted from similar efforts by the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library, Michigan State University Archives, University of North Carolina Charlotte Special Collections and University Archives, and the University of Virginia Library Digital Collecting Toolkit. Thank you to Katie Howell of J. Murrey Atkins Library, University of North Carolina Charlotte for allowing us to use text and ideas from UNCC’s “Contribute Your Stories of the COVID-19 Outbreak” website.