SGA President Michael Dobbs sifts through pieces of Murray State history Wednesday.
A small, navy box full of Murray State memorabilia was the focus of attention for students, faculty, staff and community members in Pogue Library Wednesday night.
Nearly 100 people gathered in the lobby of Pogue for the opening of a time capsule collected by the 1989-1990 Student Government Association.
Former SGA President Jeremiah Johnson, who will serve as Student Regent until July 1, opened the padlocked trunk, which served as the time capsule, with a pair of bolt cutters. The first thing he pulled out of the trunk was a videotape entitled “Excellence in Murray.”
“Does anyone have a VCR?” Johnson said.
He and newly elected SGA President Michael Dobbs continued to rifle through the collection of documents and photographs from nearly 25 years ago.
A top 10 song list from 1989 was included in the time capsule, featuring “My Prerogative” by Bobby Brown along with music by Milli Vanilli and Chicago.
Also inside the time capsule was a LIFE magazine and TIME magazine from 1989. A Sports Illustrated issue featuring the Murray State basketball team was also found in the trunk.
Although there were not as many student organizations on campus 24 years ago, several clubs contributed to the time capsule. Sigma Sigma Sigma chose to volunteer a shirt from its first volleyball tournament held that year and a ‘Campus Men’ calendar, featuring men on campus posed for each month of the year.
The Racer cheerleaders from 1989 donated a uniform to be put in the time capsule.
Katy Harned, sophomore from Mt. Juliet, Tenn., said she attended the time capsule opening because both of her parents attended Murray State in the 1980s, so she wanted to see if there might be anything featuring either of them or the organizations they were involved in during their time here.
“It was really cool to see all of the pictures from the different organizations on campus at the time,” Harned said.
As a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha, she said she enjoyed seeing everything ASA had contributed to the time capsule.
“There was a picture of Teeter for Tots that ASA did in 1990 and we still do that event today,” she said. “It was really neat to see an actual picture of how the event looked then versus how it looks now and read about how they raised just as much money back then as we did this year.”
Students from that time also compiled a list of complaints they had about the University.
Some of these complaints included city police harassing students with tickets, too much faculty parking and their wish for the residence halls on campus to be refurbished.
Many of the newly elected as well as the old senators for SGA were in attendance.
SGA President Michael Dobbs and former president Jeremiah Johnson go through the time capsule from the 1989-90 SGA.
Just before the opening of the time capsule, SGA members held a transition meeting to bring together the old and new Senate members along with each executive council member with the goal of making the move to a new SGA as seamless as possible.
New executive officers and Senate members were announced at All-Campus Sing on April 16 after two days of student voting.
About 50 students and faculty were present at the transition meeting in the Jesse Stuart Room of Pogue.
The newly elected senators and executive council members were congratulated and several farewells were made to retiring SGA members.
Patrick Hooks, sophomore from Owensboro, Ky., is entering his second year as a student senator for Lee Clark Residential College.
He said he thought the transition meeting and the time capsule opening was a good way to start off the year with a strong SGA.
“The time capsule was a unique part of our history and development through Murray State,” Hooks said. “Seeing how some of the magazines had cigarette advertisements on the back was really interesting.”
He said seeing some of the leadership and organizational roles included in the time capsule were inspiring in some ways, especially as an SGA senator and hopeful for Residential College Association president.
Said Hooks: “It was also neat to see how some of the issues Murray State faced back then have not changed much today.”
Story by Alex Mahrenholz, Staff writer