Jacob Waring — Online Editor
President Joe Bertolino’s administrative team was seen handing out delights such as kettle corn, Insomnia cookies, cinnamon buns and more. At the end, Bertolino himself handed out ice cream from the ice cream truck. This event, the Dessert Social on Wednesday at the Academic Quad, was part of the Week of Welcome.
“Everyone seems to be happy. Everybody got kettle corn, Insomnia cookies, cinnamon [buns], and people are out here, which is a good thing. [I] appreciate the team filling in while I had other things that I needed to deal with,” said Bertolino, who was absent from his event until the last 45 minutes.
Originally, the event was supposed to occur between 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., but inclement weather would have forced the university to shutter down the original time.
Theatre major Kat Duffner, sophomore who said she thought the Dessert Social was awesome, and that you cannot go wrong with free food. She said that this was an ideal event for incoming freshmen to interact with faculty and learn about the services the university provides.
“I’ve seen a lot of people with blue name tags around. A lot of people [are] here to welcome students,” she said.
Duffner said she thought the president’s team did a good job in Bertolino’s initial absence during the event. She also said she thought his presence would have been awesome, but realizes that he maintains a busy schedule, which she said is understandable.
Many students thought this was an ideal event for freshmen to become familiarized with Southern even more. Science major Isabel Lopez, a sophomore, said she was one of those students.
“It’s good for the freshmen to get involved and get familiar with the school and what we do,” she said. Health Science major, Isaiah Young, a freshman, thought the Dessert Social was lively and that everyone was having a good time. He said the administrative staff was very informative.
“They just let us know what they’re here for, how they run stuff,” he said.
Young said he was appreciative of the fact that they were not just sitting in their offices, but out at the event interacting with the students instead. He said it cultivated an atmosphere of interaction from all levels of the Southern community.
The associate director of student involvement and leadership involvement Eric LaCharity said the social was one of the events his office is helping run and said it was an office of the president event. He also said that this year was the first year they’ve done the event in this way, and in past years it was simply scooping ice cream for students.
LaCharity confirmed the event’s time was changed due to the possibility of inclement weather but wanted to attempt to get ahead of it. He also said that the change in time may have factored into Bertolino’s initial absence, but was aware that the president had a last minute scheduling conflict that he had to attend to.
“We got a few moments of drizzle, but everyone seems unaffected by that,” said LaCharity, “and seems to be having a good enough time out here.”
Photo Credit: Jacob Waring
