Time capsule will record memories

Friday, Sept. 19, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by SARA K. TAYLOR Anacamilia Figueroa, president of the student association on the La Plata campus, spoke about her experience at the College of Southern Maryland. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

It was several degrees cooler 50 years later to the day during an anniversary celebration Wednesday on the three campuses of College of Southern Maryland.

In 1958, the 15 full-time and eight part-time students, along with the 12 faculty members, met at the former La Plata High School, now the county government building, for classes.

Now the school, which includes campuses in La Plata, Prince Frederick and Leonardtown, has an enrollment of 8,300 students.

Back in the late ’50’s, when gas was 25 cents a gallon and $12,750 could buy a new house, area college students were basically on the graveyard shift.

Classes couldn’t start until 4 p.m. when the high school students left the building, allowing the college kids to be there until midnight, said Sherwood Moore, a student from 1958 to 1959.

‘‘The 301Restaurant was open all night,” Moore said Wednesday during the College of Southern Maryland’s 50th anniversary time capsule dedication ceremony in La Plata. ‘‘About a dozen of us would go there at midnight, do our homework, hang out because our schedule was backward.”

Those were the students who wanted the same opportunities given their peers at other universities and colleges.

The college’s second year, with 68 students signed up, saw the formation of the student government, the adoption of the school seal, colors and mascot the nighthawk — a fitting emblem for those attending classes after dark.

Moore was the school’s first scholarship recipient, having earned one from the Charles County Women’s Club.

He said the night schedule proved fortuitous for students, who adapted by getting gym credits taken care of during the day and having classes taught by some of the ‘‘brilliant minds” that worked day jobs at area naval bases.

After leaving college and becoming a general contractor, he found himself, years later, enrolling again to study a ‘‘new phenomenon,” computer science.

The time capsule, a 68-pound, solid steel vessel, will hold several pieces of memorabilia from 2008, including students’ suggestions of a cell phone, flash drive and a copy of the MySpace and Youtube.com home page, issues of newspapers, CSM schedules and newsletters, a Southern Maryland Blue Crabs schedule and other everyday items (including reports of the presidential race outcome) that represent the college and world this year.

The capsule will remain open until December, said Anita Warnes, a librarian on the La Plata campus and a member of the Time Capsule Project committee.

La Plata’s capsule will include a letter from the school’s student government association, of which Anacamilia Figueroa is the president.

‘‘CSM gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams,” said Figueroa, who will likely be transferring to Howard University in Washington, D.C., to study communications. ‘‘I was the first in my family to attend college right after high school and I will be the first in my family to graduate with a [college] degree.”

Time capsules on the campuses of Prince Frederick and Leonardtown are also part of the project.

While La Plata’s capsule most likely to be placed in the cornerstone of the newly renovated science and technology center, which will be renamed the Francis P. Chiaramonte, M.D. Center for Science and Technology, will hopefully be opened in 50 years during CSM’s 100th anniversary celebration, the capsules on the St. Mary’s and Calvert campuses will be opened on their 50th anniversaries, Warnes said.