As New Year’s Eve 2001 drew closer, I came across an interesting story in the Detroit Free Press that got me thinking. In 1901, Detroit Mayor William C. Maybury wrote a seven-paragraph letter to the mayor of Detroit, to be opened on Dec. 31, 2000.
Mayor Maybury placed this letter, along with written statements concerning ideas on everything from banking to medicine, into a copper box that was sealed until this past year. Mayor Dennis Archer opened the box and read the letter at an event at Orchestra Hall on New Year’s Eve.
The letter, which Maybury originally read at a city hall ceremony as the clock turned to 1901, marveled at railroad travel that had carried citizens from Detroit to Chicago in less than eight hours. It also described the end of a tremendous century of American productivity.
The noteworthy part about the remaining statements in the box was that they were ideas and not objects. The box wasn’t a collection of things or statistics, but instead, it represented the spirit of a city at the turn of the century. The Free Press noted Mayor Archer and a handful of Detroit residents were preparing a box for the 2101 occupants of the city.
This made me think about MSU and what we would tell our peers 100 years from now. Certainly the university has grown during the past century, from a small agricultural college to a 44,000-student university. At the turn of this century, we have 13 colleges, the largest study abroad program and the largest on-campus living population in the country. This month we will observe Martin Luther King Jr. day with a campus-wide march and celebration.
These accomplishments should be conveyed to future Spartans, along with our athletic achievements and advances in infrastructure. Like Mayor Maybury and Detroit in 1901, MSU in 2001 should be remembered by more than statistics and a Sparty keychain.
Our copper box could attempt to convey the spirit of MSU at the turn of the century. Our letter could speak of our long-term vision of campus - the 2020 Vision Project to redo the middle of campus - and our long-term vision for a university with greater diversity. There should even be ideas on national and world issues from our deep wealth of research and knowledge on campus.
While our place and importance in the world would not be understated, perhaps our box would also contain the problems and issues that the university faces as the new century approaches. The university’s relationship with the city of East Lansing certainly could be discussed. As could our problems with parking, accessibility to people with disabilities, student housing and teaching compensation.
Perhaps future Spartans would even laugh 100 years from now to read that some still feel inferior to our friends at the University of Michigan in 2001, a complex long since forgotten by 2101.
I see no shame in admitting that not all is right with the world today. The treasure of this concept is that the future can learn through our problems and ideas, our issues and our accomplishments.
Detroiters in 2001 may have laughed at Maybury’s triumphant railroad statement, noting that one can now travel from Detroit to Chicago by airplane in about 45 minutes and can make it to Europe in less than eight hours. But that isn’t the point. When Spartans 100 years from now open our box to read about life in 2001, they can take count of all of the accomplishments. They will better understand the origins of our university’s global education and continued focus on agriculture. Surely technology and time will bring the Spartans of 2101 problems we couldn’t possibly dream of, but at least there will be a record of how far things have come.
I would hope MSU President M. Peter McPherson and the many stewards of this university would think about this endeavor and put forth ideas of their own. To my knowledge, no such box was left for us at the turn of this century. Still it would be a great tradition to start, a great experience for us now and a great tool for the future.
While it would be late, this is a worthy project to complete this semester. There could be a ceremony on campus to read the letter and we could store the box in the MSU main library. The difficult task would be to convey the spirit of campus in a letter or a series of letters, which could be put together by a group of individuals from all of the university.
Perhaps the president could develop a committee to work on this experience. I think it is an interesting project and a worthy endeavor.
Mayor Maybury of Detroit had the foresight to tell his city’s story in 1901 to an audience a century later. Certainly MSU can take a page out of the mayor’s playbook now. Think about it.
Michael Webber, an international relations and journalism senior, can be reached at webbermi@msu.edu. His column will regularly appear Wednesdays in The Loop.
