On March 9, 2020, Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation, the state's equivalent to a state of emergency. Closure of schools, bars, and restaurants followed later that month, as did decisions to cancel gatherings of 50 or more people, institute a stay-at-home order, and close nonessential businesses and theaters, parks, libraries, etc. Various and varied restrictive measures were tightened and then loosened during the better part of three years. On May 11, 2023, Governor Pritzker's COVID-19 public health emergency proclamation officially ended.
At Illinois State University, Sandra Harmon served as interim assistant to the president for Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, and director of the Affirmative Action Office. Beginning in 1997, she was an assistant director and academic advisor for the Women’s Studies program, where she served three times as interim director. Sandra’s husband Paul Harmon served on the Normal Town Council for nine years, and then as mayor of the Town of Normal from 1985–1993.
Scope
The collection includes eleven (11) small spiral bound notebooks in which daily journal entries were made by Sandra Harmon during the COVID-19 pandemic.