Make Your Mark: Preserve Your Story for Future Wildcats

In 2019, Northwestern University Archives launched a project to help Northwestern undergraduate Residential Colleges and student organizations like yours archive their records as part of their everyday workflow and ultimately deposit them with us for long-term preservation and access. By participating in this project, you:

• Ensure the authentic student voice is captured for all time
• Preserve your group's legacy
• Guarantee your successors can continue to carry the torch

Our end goal is to grow and diversify Northwestern University Archives' holdings to more accurately reflect the richness of undergraduate student life.

To get started, fill out the “Make Your Mark Training Course Sign-Up” then you will get access to the training course to orient you to the process of archiving your records. Afterward, we will contact you for a follow-up consultation to walk you through the steps of transferring your records to the Archives.

Project STAND (Student Activism Now Documented)

Project STAND is a radical grassroots archival consortia project between colleges and universities around the country; to create a centralized digital space highlighting analog and digital collections emphasizing student activism in marginalized communities. Project STAND aims to foster ethical documentation of contemporary and past social justice movements in underdocumented student populations. STAND advocates for collections by collaborating with educators to provide pedagogical support, create digital resources, hosts workshops and forums for students, information professionals, academics, technologists, humanists, etc. interested in building communities with student organizers and their allies, leading to sustainable relationships, and inclusive physical and digital spaces of accountability, diversity, and equity.

• Find collections and data relating to student activism collections from universities and colleges across the country.
• Project STAND offers a guide for documenting, collecting, and providing access to student activism collections in archives, including resources for activists.

           “Archiving Student Activism Toolkit”

Right now, we are living history in the making.

Because Northwestern University Archives strives to document the history of our institution, we have an obligation to document this history — the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic — and how it impacts members of the Northwestern community.

Help us capture this experience as it unfolds. We are seeking volunteers who will keep and submit a journal while they "shelter in place.” We’re interested in your revised daily routines, the effect of these changes on your academic and work lives, and the impact of practicing “social distancing.”

The coronavirus has been and will continue to be life-changing for so many. Years from now, the documentation we collect today will inform us of how the pandemic impacted members of our Northwestern community and beyond.

See more on this project and submit your journal at libraries.nu/DocumentingCOVID19

Northwestern has been building its University Archives since 1935. The Archives obtain and add to its holdings by receiving University records transferred by offices and departments; and by the donation of faculty members' personal papers; student organizations' records; and the personal papers and memorabilia of alumni and friends. Click here for more information about what the Archives collects and how to donate these materials.

By endowing an archivist role like other important campus roles, Northwestern shows its commitment to high-priority fields of study. An endowed position also ensures that the role attracts and retains the most qualified archivists.

Learn more about supporting the Archivist for the Black Experience.