Clarie Oliver

A snapshot of Linfield daily life will be captured and preserved when the sesquicentennial time capsule is placed in the ground      this week.

It will be buried beneath the newly constructed sesquicentennial plaza until the college’s bicentennial in 2058. The plaza, located outside of Walker Hall, will be finished with a layer               of bricks donated by current students, alumni and         other supporters.

The school’s alumni association provided the funding to purchase the actual capsule, Debbie Harmon, director of alumni relations and secretary of the sesquicentennial committee, said.

It was the job of the committee to ask different students and campus groups to contribute items. The result is a wide range of items meant to give future generations a taste of Linfield in 2008, senior anthropology major Stephanie                 Lovell said.

“We’ve collected stuff that represents student life,” she said. “It’s good mix of what (students) do at Linfield and (their) outside activities.”

Striving to ensure all Linfield groups had the chance to contribute, the committee contacted student organizations, alumni and staff to do the same.

Students, including junior Chris Hawley and seniors Mae Swisher and Jordan Boustead, detailed their day-to-day activities in personal letters for the capsule, describing the impact of athletics, Greek Life and Linfield itself on their lives.

Gossip magazines and copies of the Review will serve as record for events that have occurred on- and off-campus.

A cell phone, iPod and the items necessary for beer pong will provide a sense of student recreation. A campus map will be included so community members can compare the campus to how it is today and mark any physical changes.

Linfield faculty, staff and administrators also had their say in the capsule’s contents.

“(Dean of Students) Dave Hansen suggested forever stamps,” Harmon said.

She is curious to see whether they will live up to their claim.

Facility Services contributed as well, cutting off a ring of the Old Oak.

Because the burial is before the school’s next sesquicentennial event on May 9, visitors will have the opportunity to see how the college is being represented. Lovell is working on an exhibit for the Linfield Anthropology Museum that will display examples of the contents of the capsule for her senior project.

Although the exhibit will not be an exact replica of what is in the capsule, it will showcase copies of objects, enlarged photos and a list of its contents for the rest of the school year.

Lovell said through working on the capsule’s compilation, she has learned about aspects of Linfield she didn’t know before.

“I’ve noticed the diversity of (student) groups,” she said.

For Lovell, her interest in Linfield life will continue even after she graduates.

“I wonder how different it will be in 50 years; if (students) will still go to Taco Bell, if there will still be Greenfield or if any one will care about the Old Oak,” Lovell said. “I want to come back just to see.”