IF YOU GO
What: Senior Brunch
Where: Schine Student Center
When: Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
How much: Free; open only to seniors
The first “Senior Weekend” is being held Wednesday through Sunday and includes discounts at local stores and a senior brunch.

The Traditions Commission, which created the weekend, wanted to plan events to create a memorable experience for Syracuse University seniors, pulling ideas from senior week festivities at other universities, said Beth Anne Kieft, Traditions Commission co-president and a junior public relations and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major. The weekend also coincides with Friday’s MayFest and Block Party.

Funk ‘n Waffles will offer free cover to seniors Wednesday and Thursday. A Marshall Street farewell tour is planned for Saturday, when students who have purchased a special $10 shirt can receive discounts at participating shops. Thirty-five of the 50 shirts ordered have been purchased, Kieft said.

Six vendors on Marshall Street will be participating in the event. Chuck’s Café and Faegan’s Café and Pub will offer free cover, and restaurants like Subway and Acropolis will offer special deals.

Both Adam Gold, co-owner of Funk ‘n Waffles, and his business partner were students at SU, so he said he knows how important the traditions and end-of-the-year activities are. Gold said he remembers attending MayFest and Block Party during his senior year in 2006.

“We know how exciting it is to be a senior, about to graduate about to move on,” Gold said. “So it’s our pleasure to give them a place to party during this weekend of theirs.”

Sable Nerette will perform spoken-word poetry at Funk ‘n Waffles Thursday night, but she said she was looking forward to events throughout the weekend.

“I’m obviously excited for Drake,” said Nerette, a senior communication and rhetorical studies and writing and rhetoric major.

In addition to her show, Nerette said she will be going to MayFest and Block Party. As a senior, she said she regretted waiting so long to perform in front of her peers but was excited it would finally happen during her Senior Weekend.

A senior brunch in Schine Student Center will be held Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The Office of Alumni Relations, along with yearbook and senior class gift groups, will attend.

Kieft said she has been getting mostly positive responses but has done limited promotion after hearing back late from vendors. The event was decided on in February, but planning did not fully begin until the last week in March, Kieft said.

MayFest and Block Party on Friday will be part of the tradition, Kieft said. She said she is not worried about Friday’s events overshadowing the rest of the weekend, and said she hopes the Senior Weekend tradition grows with time.

“There’s always the MayFest tradition,” Kieft said. “It’s going to be a good time both on and off of Euclid.”

Danielle Matfess, Traditions Commission treasurer and freshman accounting major, handled promotion for the events. With Senior Weekend being a new tradition and MayFest an existing one, she said planning the new event was difficult.

“It’s a new thing, so a lot of people don’t really know what it is yet, but we’re trying to get the word out so in future years it will grow in popularity,” Matfess said

Kieft said she hopes to continue the Marshall Street and brunch events next year, potentially bringing a speaker to the brunch to talk about the transition period graduating seniors go through.

Matfess also said she hopes that by her senior year the event will have grown in popularity and that she and all her friends will attend.

“Any new tradition is not going to be extremely popular from the get-go,” she said. “We just wanted to get it out this year, so next year we can start promoting it early and have it become an SU tradition just like Homecoming or Winter Carnival.”

Published on April 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride