ARIGE SHROUF |

ST. CROIX — In the spirit of moving forward and acknowledging the past, Committee Chair Raquel Silver shared the progress of the time capsule project at the Charter Day Ceremony, “Our Journey to Greatness,” which took place via video conference on the University of the Virgin Islands’ St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses on March 15.

Silver said she sees the project as an opportunity for the members of the UVI community to pass on “legacies, lessons, knowledge, hopes, and dreams” to future members of the UVI community to show “how far we have come.”

The time capsule will act as a record of the 50 (now 51) years of UVI’s history. Although it has not yet been built (as its size depends on the number of submissions), plans have been made.

The time capsule’s structure will be that of a sugar mill, a symbol of the islands’ history. Once the items have been sealed in acid-free bags using argon gas, the items will be placed in a fiberglass box. That box will then be sealed inside the sugar mill structure.

The time capsule will be placed above ground on a concrete slab. It will sit across from the business office at UVI on St. Croix, unopened for 50 years.

UVI student Seti Balkaran stated that it could be “exciting [for students 50 years from now] to see what UVI was like in (and before) 2013. Ashlei Florent, a member of the UVI Community Choir, agrees that it “makes sense for people down the line to learn about UVI in the past.”

The committee is accepting various items now, including letters written to students in the future about how one perceives UVI in 50 years. A list of the items in the capsule will be placed on display in the library on the St. Croix campus once the capsule is sealed.

The deadline for submitting items to be placed in the capsule is March 29.

There will be a ceremony to seal the capsule later this year.