Web site created to preserve stories of former students

The old Student Center had the best chocolate ice cream in the late 1950s. Girls were not allowed to wear pants if they were majoring in business education. And a group of students once painted a shopping cart blue and gold for a parade.

These are a few of the memories posted by alumni on a Kent State Web site devoted to preserving alumni memories in preparation for the university’s Centennial Celebration.

Kent State is celebrating its centennial anniversary in 2010, but events will begin in Fall 2009, said Nancy Schiappa, associate director of Alumni Relations Outreach.

The memories can be viewed by the public so current Kent State students can see what has changed through time and what has stayed the same.

“The posted alumni memories were for more than celebrating the centennial; they are for prospective Kent State students who want to know what Kent is like and to share personal experience so current students can relate,” Schiappa said.

The memories have been divided into subgroups about what is thought to be most memorable from Kent State.

“There is no specific reasoning for it,” Schiappa said. “It’s just for fun.”

Even so, Schiappa said the university wants to involve some of the alumni who post memories online during next fall’s homecoming celebration.

“The memories have been posted so early to get a big involvement from previous alumni and to get current students to bring their experiences to the surface,” she said.

Schiappa said a committee has been working on the Centennial Celebration since 2005 and is planning to make the kickoff this fall.

“We are now in what I like to call a quiet phase for the centennial planning, but in the next couple of months, we will get into the active phase,” she said.

The centennial year will be a year full of events celebrating the past, present and future, Schiappa said.

“We wanted a way our students could tie our past to our present.”

Contact news correspondent Laura Cordle at [email protected].