Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll find out why 400 college students will walk across the Brooklyn Bridge very early tomorrow morning. We’ll also get details on a guilty plea that a founder of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel is expected to enter in federal court in Brooklyn.
If you’re up early tomorrow morning on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge — or, a little later, on the pedestrian walkway — you’ll probably see a swarm of 17- and 18-year-olds.
A flash mob? A protest? No. They will be on a mile-and-a-half-long bonding ritual led by the president of the university they have just enrolled in.
They are first-year students at the Pratt Institute. The president, Frances Bronet, wants them to get acquainted with one another and with the Manhattan skyline, especially landmarks like the Chrysler Building that were designed by people who were once first-year students at Pratt.
For college freshmen transplanted to campuses away from home, it’s off-to-school time. Their schools have rituals and traditions to smooth the transition and build a sense of community among students who will spend four years in the same dorms, the same classes, the same cafeterias. (Or five years, for Pratt students enrolled in the architecture program.)
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