Students stood on Euclid Avenue last week selling homemade T-shirts that read ‘Euclid Avenue, F*** Walnut’ on the front and ‘Long Live MayFest on Euclid’ on the back. Their efforts did not meet the approval of the Syracuse University administration.

Someone made a complaint. The students were soon approached by a Syracuse police officer who told them they needed a permit to sell the shirts on the street. After speaking to the students, the officer actually agreed that the original MayFest, once held on Euclid Avenue, was ‘fine the way it was,’ said Tom Briccetti, a junior art video major who designed the shirt.

‘It really leads you to question why the university is so adamant about changing what works,’ said Zach Sheldon, a junior communication and rhetorical studies major. ‘(The police officer) indicated that law enforcement had no problems with previous MayFests and cited that the change in location was just as much a mystery to law enforcement as it is to the student body.’

In response to the moving of MayFest to Walnut Park, Vinny Jacobbi and Sheldon led the charge in creating the ‘official’ MayFest T-shirts, which they hope will inspire reaction among students on SU’s campus. They have sold approximately 200 shirts so far and have plenty of shirts yet to be delivered.

‘We wanted to mirror everyone’s feelings about MayFest through the T-shirt,’ said Jacobbi, a sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and a magazine journalism major. He said the aim for the apparel is to have the university notice the disappointment students feel.
 
‘Historically, T-shirts have been a way to make a statement,’ said Fred Easton, a supply chain management professor at SU. ‘It’s a tried and true method.’

But social network technologies may be more successful in circumstances such as this, Easton said.

With MayFest occurring on Friday, Jacobbi and Sheldon continue to promote their shirts to the student population. The team advertises through social networking sites, word of mouth and fliers. The students even deliver the shirts to customers’ doorsteps when they order one.

Sheldon said creating the shirts was a step-by-step process. The students originally got the idea from Jacobbi’s friend, who attends the State University of New York at Brockport. He made similar shirts when changes were made to the university’s annual ‘Brock the Port’ celebration.

Briccetti was then recruited to help the duo with the venture. Before they distributed the T-shirts, Jaccobi and Sheldon made a Facebook group to gauge interest. The shirts do a great job of relaying the message that it is all about Euclid, Briccetti said.

With strong responses on the social networking site, the team designed the shirts and ordered them from Holy Shirt!, a local T-shirt manufacturer.

‘They made the shirts because students are not happy with the decision to hold MayFest in Walnut Park and are going to party on Euclid anyway,’ Briccetti said. ‘The administration and the city need to realize that kids don’t want to be roped in on Walnut and be restricted to four beers.’

Sheldon said there are a lot of opinions about how MayFest should take place this year. This shirt just represents one perspective that is popular among students.

Jacobbi acknowledged the university is cracking down on MayFest with the intention of looking out for Syracuse residents. However, he said he feels that the celebration does more good than harm, giving students one day of freedom to celebrate the end of the school year.

‘It gives students a sense of community,’ Jacobbi said.
 
Even after their effort to sell the shirts was put to a stop by police officials, the boys did not stop spreading their message. Instead, they said it encouraged them. They expect most people who purchased the MayFest shirt to wear them on MayFest.

Jacobbi said money was not their incentive. It was their need to convey the feelings they had toward the school revamping the festival, he said. Though Jacobbi is a transfer student and has never been to MayFest, he wishes to participate in a tradition he has heard so much about.

Sheldon said what he loves most about the original MayFest is the atmosphere.

‘Ask anyone what they did for the event last year, and odds are they spent part of that day among the throngs of people on Euclid Avenue,’ Sheldon said.

Though freshmen have yet to experience the real MayFest, the message has caught their attention.

‘The shirts represent the student desire to hold onto a longtime tradition,’ said Michael Diamond, an undeclared freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. ‘It gives the student body a chance to escape the incredible stress surrounding finals together and have a good time,’ Diamond said.

Diamond said he is concerned about never being able to experience the annual SU pastime that many students have gotten to enjoy and rant about.

Sheldon and Jacobbi said they will be wearing their T-shirts on Friday and also hope to see other students oppose Walnut Park by wearing their shirts.

Sheldon said, ‘I hope to spend a majority of it where it belongs.’

ygalstya@syr.edu
 

Published on April 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm