Midnight Tours Highlight MainStreet Celebration

Andrew Burke will be rounding up groups to go walkin’ after midnight during the University of Cincinnati MainStreet Preview Celebration that kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday, May 21. Andrew, a third-year communication major, will be one of the tour group leaders sharing the myths and legends of UC. 

The Lakota West High School graduate is building connections outside the classroom here at UC through his involvement through Bearcat Roar, the UC Admissions student tour-guide group that leads visitors on campus tours. These tour guides can share their own personal experience about what it’s like to be a UC student. Andrew believes that experience is gaining more energy through the opening of the first phase of MainStreet. He says he remembers the darker, outdated interior of the

Tangeman University Center

and viewing the renovation from behind a construction fence since early 2001. Now that the fences are down, he says he’s thrilled with the end result.

“I love the open atmosphere that TUC provides,” he says. “You go to all of these other schools and they all have these great student unions, and now we’re right there in the running. I think TUC is a place that is also going to keep the commuters on campus. They’re going to want to hang around.”

Andrew says UC was his choice because he wanted to stay close to home. He’s also gaining real-world experience this quarter by working a co-op in the IT department of Cinergy in organizational communication. He’s a member of the Phi Rho Chi Honorary, the Cincinnatus Honor Society, the Student Alumni Council and Sigma Chi Fraternity.

As a member of Bearcat Roar, Andrew says one of his favorite stories to tell on the tour is the tale of “Echo Point.”

“Legend has it that there was a UC physicist who worked late in his office and he always heard voices. When the weather would get nice, he would like to work outside, but the problem was that the sounds of the voices worsened. So, one afternoon while calculating a problem, the physicist found the perfect spot for everyone else to hear the voices that he was hearing, and he drew up plans for Echo Point. It’s an area right next to the Geology- Physics Building, on the side of Wilson Auditorium. If you stand in the middle of Echo Point and speak, you’ll get an echo, but it’s only you who will hear the echo. It’s kind of creepy, but it’s cool. It’s one of my favorite spots on the tour.”

The Bearcat  Roar midnight tours will follow a video dance party in the Great Hall and “Casino Night,” with “Sopranos” star Steve Shirripa, who plays Bobby Bacala Baccalieri on the hit TV show. The dance party and Casino night start at 10 p.m. Friday, May 21, and run through midnight, when the tour groups start gathering in front of TUC.

MainStreet Preview Celebration Events

MainStreet Web site