This week, University of Wisconsin Communications and UW Marketing are celebrating the 10th anniversary of a digital time capsule called #UWRightNow. 

Ten years ago, on April 18, 2012, UW students and alumni across the world shared pictures, stories and memories about what it means to be a badger to a website curated by UW, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Communications John Lucas said.

“We were looking for a way to give our community and alums a way to express pride in being a badger,” Lucas said. “We thought we could send out writers, photographers or video crews to curate content…[but] for the first time, we decided to turn to the community using digital tools and ask them to share their views on being a badger and a part of their life.”

The high turnout of Badger Pride was especially meaningful that day because UW had been struggling with the ramifications of Act 10, the New Badger Partnership and the resignation of Chancellor Biddy Martin.

Despite this, the theme of unity and pride around being a Badger was overpowering, according to UW News.

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The turnout was much more than what was expected, Lucas said. Badgers submitted over 1,000 pieces of content to the website, creating a snapshot of what being a Badger means — though UW communications ended up selecting a smaller group of submissions to maintain on the website, Lucas said. 

Due to the growing popularity of social media, UW Communications sent out another call for submissions on what it means to be a Badger in 2013,  Lucas said.

“We ran a version of the same initiative back in 2013, which encouraged us to do something to band the community [together] again,” Lucas said.

Lucas said UW Communications wants to engage in more projects that bring the campus together, and hopes upcoming new staff can help create some of these initiatives.