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Incriminating?
Old photos are major revelation for students - it's their professors in authentic '80s style
Journal photo by David Rolfe
Wake Forest law professor Joel Newman and admissions director Melanie Nutt look for their photos in the undelivered 1988 law-school bulletin.
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Published: February 21, 2009
The poofy hair. The big glasses. The shoulder pads.
The horror.
Because of a fluke in the postal system, Thursday wound up being '80s day at the Wake Forest University Law School.
And it wasn't pretty.
Jenny Hutcherson, an assistant in the admissions office, was sorting through a stack of mail Thursday when she came upon a wrinkled white envelope. The label for the addressee was gone. The return address read School of Law, Wake Forest University in nondescript black letters.
That was odd. Everything the school sends bears a logo. Hutcherson took a closer look at the postmark. It read June 3, 1988.
"What in the world?" she thought.
Hutcherson tore open the envelope and discovered an admissions packet that included a law-school application and brochures on applying for financial aid.
But what really tickled Hutcherson and other staff members was a directory filled with 20-year-old pictures of faculty members, many of whom are still at the school.
Melanie Nutt, who has been the director of admissions since 1980, got a good chuckle seeing herself with dark blond hair. Today, her hair is silver and she wears glasses.
"It was a being in a time warp to see myself like that," Nutt said. "It was kind of freaky."
It didn't take long for word to filter through the law school about the 20-year old package.
"The first thing the kids wanted to do was find their professors and make a little fun of them," Hutcherson said.
Many of the staff and faculty members have either shaved off moustaches, turned gray or lost a foot or two in hair height.
"There was a bunch of big hair," Nutt said.
Joel Newman, who teaches tax law, surveyed his mug shot in the faculty directory.
"I had more hair," he said.
A few things struck Nutt about the package. For one thing, the brochures and applications are a relic. Everything now is online. Nutt said that the school hasn't mailed a package with these kinds of materials for about five years.
Tuition then was about $5,500. Today, it's $51,000.
The only clue to the package's whereabouts was a sticker and bar code from a Los Angeles airport.
Hutcherson and others who examined the package surmised that it was probably discovered in a storeroom or file after years of collecting dust and sent through the mail. It is illegal to throw away someone else's piece of mail.
This is admissions season for the law school, and the mysterious package gave everyone a needed break from their hectic schedules, Nutt said.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
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