UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project

The Archive is live. Browse the collection here.

Access the collection in the MKL Digital Collections

Read about the project below

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What is the UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project?

We are living through unprecedented shared trauma. The COVID-19 pandemic is a major historical event affecting all aspects of society and every individual in unique and personal ways. Facing the ramifications of quarantine, isolation, and job loss, we know that the coronavirus has significantly changed how we live our lives, and that some of those changes will endure. The pandemic has highlighted the racial and economic disparities apparent in U.S. society and brought the issues of equity and inclusion to the forefront of local and national discourse.

College students, faculty, and staff are experiencing the pandemic through the lens of higher education and dealing with issues related to education, pedagogy, college operations, race, class, finances, family, social life, and mental health, among many others. Our perspectives and experiences are unique and will be of interest to future historians. The UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project will gather and digitally preserve artifacts in a variety of media which will be made available in the Macdonald-Kelce Library Digital Exhibits by Fall 2021.

We invited UT students, faculty, and staff to contribute work and share experiences. 

This project was conceived in Fall 2020 by Jenica Ibarra, and managed by Leslie Vega. Questions? Contact Leslie Vega at lvega@ut.edu

Chronology

Here's a brief chronology to jog your memory:

• January 20, 2020: 1st CDC-confirmed COVID-19 case in the U.S.
• March 1, 2020: 1st officially-reported COVID-19 case in Florida.
• March 8-15, 2020: UT Spring Break.
• March 16, 2020: UT went to fully online classes.
• Fall 2020 - Spring 2021: UT began the new academic year with hybrid classes, both in-person and remote.
• December 2020: The first person in the US receives Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. At this point, one out of every 1,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
• February 2021: Over half a million Americans are dead from the novel coronavirus.
• Summer-Fall 2021: The Delta variant has rapidly spread and is causing a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths in the US and the world.
• August 23, 2021: FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech

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  For archived data and population analysis, see The Atlantic's The COVID Tracking Project. There are many other resources to check for current data. The Johns Hopkins Resource Center is a good place to start.

Thank You

Contributions from The University of Tampa community are deeply appreciated. Materials such as these are valuable for understanding the depth and breath of a historic event, and will hopefully build understanding of shared experience.