DeKALB – In the year 2000, the world was using pagers, VHS tapes and phone books. The internet was slowly starting to become more common and a new era of space exploration was underway.
NIU and Northern Star relics left behind in a time capsule in the year 2000 were opened Wednesday in the Peters Campus Life Building.
A new time capsule was sealed, containing items that represent NIU in this day and age as well as items that represent the Northern Star. The new time capsule will be opened in April 2050.
“Time capsules mark a specific moment in time,” said Brynn Krug, Editor-in-Chief at the Northern Star. “This time capsule tells us not only what life was like at Northern Illinois University in the year 2000, but what students at that time felt was most important to highlight.”
A crowd of about 75 students, NIU staff, alums, DeKalb residents and Northern Star staffers gathered in the rotunda of the Peters Campus Life Building to witness the reveal of the time capsule’s contents.
Jim Killam, Northern Star adviser when the time capsule was sealed in 2000, spoke on how the time capsule idea came to be, something that has ne
ver been done before.
“It was the idea of one of our editors at the (Northern) Star at the time and we just thought ‘OK, this is kind of an odd idea but let’s try it,’” Killam said. “It’s really fun to be here. I never imagined being here for when it was opened.”
Among the dozens of items that were pulled out, some represented NIU, like the Northern Illinois University community telephone directory, a parking regulations brochure, a 1999 Football Media Guide and two CDs from the NIU Steelband.
Two items that gained the most attention were a Beanie Baby dog and a small Beanie Baby handbook.
Beanie Babies were popular stuffed animal collectibles in the 2000s, each with a Ty Inc. heart-shaped tag. They are often cited as being one of the first internet sensations.
“I was trying to remember what I had put in there but the Beanie Babies might have been from me,” Killam said.
The time capsule also contained a DeKalb community map, a Chicago Tribune newspaper, a printout of the First Amendment, Northern Star story prints as well as a Northern Star documentary on VHS.
For those who missed the sealing of the new time capsule, take a visit back to NIU in 2050 to discover what this generation of Northern Star staffers sealed inside.
