The Final Countdown and the Return

Posted September 9, 2021 by William Crouch

Hi everyone. It’s been a while since my last post. A lot has happened since then. I’ve begun my final semester in the program and started my final master’s thesis as the culmination of my history degree. After brainstorming and trying to plan on what to write about, I’ve settled on the topic of tennis. Specifically, once tennis turned professional in 1968, how did this change allow activists like Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King to succeed as athletes and even more so as leaders for social change when previous marginalized groups did not have the same degree of success in an inherently elitist sport. But I’ll write more on that later. The other courses I’ll be taking as the finale to my archives degree will be LIS 437 Legal Information and Sources and LIS 442 Establishing Archives and Manuscripts. The Legal Information sources class is going to be really interesting and already pretty timely with how much the law is changing. The need for librarians who understand how to navigate these complex sources is going to be increasingly important to combat misinformation. The Establishing Archives and Manuscripts will help train me to be able to manage archive programs and combat the various difficulties from an administrative and physical standpoint to ensure that archives are able to properly function.

In addition to all this, I have finally been able to return to Boston for this final in person excursion. With Simmons returning to campus for classes, it felt like it was time after a year and a half back in Texas. Simmons’ approach to trying to stop the spread has made me feel that all the necessary steps are there to maintain a safe environment. For example, classes are going to be held as socially distanced as possible with air filtration units to continually move the air in each classroom. Simmons is also requiring weekly COVID tests to make sure that nobody within the Simmons community is unintentionally spreading the virus. While returning over the first week of September, my family and I decided to drive up with the initial intention being that we would go through the Carolinas and through Philadelphia on our way. However, Hurricane Ida disrupted these plans and we instead drove through Indiana and Ohio to avoid the worst of the storm. We still got hit pretty badly on our drive through New York state on the same day that the storm caused massive flooding in the city but thankfully we made it through safely. That about wraps up most of my trip back and how my final semester has started. Next time, I’ll try to talk a little more about the changes to Simmons’ campus as current construction for the One Simmons project has started once I get the opportunity to see more of these changes in person.