And we’re back! It was a long, hot summer, and now it’s a busy, hot fall. But we are excited to have all of the students back on campus, and are looking forward to showing off more archival treasures!

Just as most folks on campus, we are getting excited about the centennial coming up in a few short months. In 2019, the University will be celebrating its past 100 years, and looking ahead to the next one hundred! In honor of the momentous occasion, you can expect plenty of looks back, retrospectives, and flashbacks from the archives through out the year.

Today, we’re going to flashback to some flashbacks! Both The Westerner, and The Communicator – the University’s alumni magazine – occasionally do what we do here, and share fun snippets of the past. In the summer of 1988, The Communicator published a “WNEC Lore” section, featuring stories about life on campus, passed down through alumni throughout the years. There’s the story of The Rock, a perennial favorite, and a story about an 86 hour world record breaking shower, among others.

The Westerner also published a retrospective in its 30th birthday edition in February 1995, using clippings from old issues of the long running student newspaper. The spread features great headlines such as “UFO sighted at WNEC,” “We Never Ever Close,” and “Moron Television.”

These flashbacks are a great way to see not only the moments in time they are highlighting, but to also understand what was interesting to the creators of the flashbacks twenty plus years ago. And we love them because they’re doing all our work for us!

Enjoy!