IU wants to hear your story and we want lots of our IU East Class of 2020 students to be part of this historical event. Record an oral history and share your unique memories and experiences with future generations!

Help us document the Class of 2020 by sharing your story! It’s easy to participate: volunteer here.

More information about this special project is presented by Kelly Kish, the Director of the IU Bicentennial:  

Class of 2020,

I am writing to invite you to volunteer for the Bicentennial Oral History Class of 2020 project. We have already gathered more than 1,200 interviews with alumni, faculty, and staff members from all IU campuses about their IU experiences. We want to add the Class of 2020 to this new collection of IU history.

The Class of 2020 Oral History Project is part of the larger Bicentennial Oral History Project. The interviews are recorded via telephone calls and take an average of one hour. All interviews will be transcribed, and both the audio and transcription will be made publicly available on the project website: oralhistory.iu.edu. The original audio file and transcript will be deposited in the Indiana University Archives. Included below are the baseline of interview questions and the online copyright release form is available here: https://200.iu.edu/signature-projects/oral-history/copyright-release.html. Please consider the list of questions as a basic framework for the interview, as not all of the questions may be relevant to your individual experience at IU. Other questions will naturally arise during the interview, as well.

We would be honored to record and preserve your memories to help document the history of Indiana University. To volunteer to share your story, please complete the volunteer form: http://go.iu.edu/OHC2020 and someone will be in touch about scheduling a phone call.

Indiana University Bicentennial Oral History Project

Class of 2020 Sample Interview Questions

▪   Where were you born? Tell me about your family background. What brought you to IU?

▪    Are you a first-generation college student?

▪   Where did you live while attending IU? Do you have favorite memories of that place?

▪   Tell me about your favorite class or professor. Did you have an advisor who impacted you?

▪   What was your favorite student hangout? What did you do for fun?

▪   Were you involved in student government? Were you involved in student activism?

▪   Could you tell me about an event (IU or national) that you particularly remember from your time here at IU?

▪   How has COVID-19 impacted your experience?

▪   Can you talk about how it feels to be in college during this time?

▪   Are there special friendships you remember from your time at IU?

▪   How did you support yourself as student?

▪   Did you have to balance family life and/or work life with student life?

▪   How diverse was the campus when you attended? 

▪   What does IU mean to you?

▪   Is there anything else you would like to add?

Additional information is here or you are welcome to contact IU East Campus Historian Frances Yates fyates@iue.edu or IU East Archivist Beth South eabrockm@iue.edu