August Pelliccio – General Assignment Reporter
Last Friday, President Joe invited students to take the bus downtown and explore the city of New Haven, all the while, giving merchandise to business owners and Southern alumni.
At the start of the event, students were given t-shirts displaying the newly updated Southern logo. Students then boarded the Southern bus, along with Gregg Crerar, director of community advancement, Patrick Dilger, director of integrated communications and marketing, and of course, President Joe Bertolino.
The bus dropped students off where Elm and York Streets meet, and Bertolino led them inside the afternoon’s first destination, TYCO Printing. Michael Ianuzzi, owner of TYCO, and Southern alumnus, briefly spoke about his business, before being presented a new Southern pennant and t-shirt by Bertolino.
After leaving TYCO, Bertolino led students down Elm Street, loudly chanting “SC-SU,” and “Owls in the house!” Bertolino said, “The goal is to have Southern out and about, and sneak into Yale territory.”
The next, and longest stop of the afternoon was City Hall. Upon arriving Bertolino introduced the students to New Haven’s director of legislative services, Al Lucas. Lucas gave an extensive tour of City Hall, highlighting many important pieces of history around the building.
Lucas showed students a plaque hung in 1975 in commemoration of Powder House Day. Lucas said Benedict Arnold demanded the men of New Haven hand over the keys to the powder house so the second company governors foot guard could join the colonial army in Lexington, Mass.
Next, Lucas showed students a 1909 horse-drawn fire engine, which has stood fully restored in City Hall since 2012. According to Lucas, to this day, New Haven has one of the better-organized and quicker responding fire departments in the world.
Lucas urged students to really look around when they walk the streets of New Haven. “The places that you’re walking by are where history happened years ago,” Lucas said. “Pay attention to it.”
Bertolino took students by a local Starbucks to say hello to their assistant manager, a Southern student, on the way to the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. Tony Rescigno, president of the chamber took the stage for a few minutes, and told students about the importance of a chamber of commerce, and encouraged students to be involved in the community and start building their resumes.
On their way to the remainder of the day’s activities, Bertolino and the students continued to chant in celebration of Southern. Bertolino said that it is important to celebrate Southern, and spread the word around New Haven.
“Bragging about Southern is fun,” said Bertolino.
The tour stopped by Shake Shack and Temple Grill to greet more Southern student employees, and hand out t-shirts and pennants, before finally landing at Wall Street Pizza.
Crerar said it is Bertolino’s passion is to conduct several of these tours in the future. Bertolino confirmed that he would indeed like to do this a few times, with different themes each time.
“I’m always excited to hang out with my students,” said Bertolino. It wasn’t part of his job description to be this involved in student activity, and Bertolino said although it wasn’t something he anticipated, he loves it.
Crerar said to the group, “I’ve been here for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a president who wants to go out and be with the students like President Joe wants to be with you.”
Photo Credit: August Pelliccio
