DeKALB | The oral history project StoryCorps is at NIU this week to record accounts related to the Feb. 14 shootings.
The Department of History and University Archives have arranged for StoryCorps to record interviews with people affected by Feb. 14.

“It’s a way we document history with the rest of the population and lets people tell their own story,” said Cindy Ditzler, the curator of the NIU Regional History Center. “We’re pretty booked now for interviews, but we’d still like more students to show up.”

According to its Web site, StoryCorps “is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. It is a project of Sound Portraits Productions in partnership with the Library of Congress, NPR and public radio stations nationwide.”

Rather than a trained interviewer asking questions, the interviews will consist of a facilitator and two people who were affected by the shootings as they ask each other questions in an private room for a 40-minute session.

The interviews will be recorded on CD and given out for free to those in the interview. Interviews recorded by StoryCorps are aired on public radio and the Internet, and will be preserved in the Library of Congress.

Some NIU students are open to the idea.
“I think it’s a good idea, preserving history orally, and even if it is a great tragedy it still lets people later on take from our experiences,” said senior sociology major Vanessa Johnson.

“I definitely think it’s a good thing because school shootings should be studied since they’re becoming prevalent in this day and age,” said junior psychology major Mike Ward.

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