Tools
We used TimelineJS by Knightlab as our digital tool. We decided that a timeline of the events in question would be the most effective visual we could generate to help our audience understand our project. While TimelineJS has an extremely accessible interface with a very slight learning curve, it does possess limitations. We initially wanted to juxtapose the events in Scranton as compared to what was happening nationally and internationally with two separate, parallel timelines, but TimelineJS only allows the user to follow its exact pattern. Neither of us are computer experts, so we decided to leave well enough alone. Instead, we strategically chose colors for the individual slides' backgrounds to alert the audience as to where the event is taking place: purple for Scranton and grey for events on the national or international scale.
Analysis
So what's our conclusion on all of these dates? While the chaos at the University of Scranton could never live up to the chaos of a world at war, there was definitely chaos. In regards to the war itself, while the Jesuits initially took the war into account when deciding on whether or not to takeover the University of Scranton, once they assumed formal of control of the University, they ignored it out of necessity. They had taken on a failing institution with financial debt just months after an American catastrophe at Pearl Harbor and during one of the darkest points of World War II for the Allies. They disregarded the war because they didn't have the choice to let it affect them: they needed to make the University of Scranton a success, and they wouldn't, and couldn't, let a world war stand in their way.