Syracuse University isn’t simply a learning institution for Ben Tupper — it’s a way of life.

A popular landlord, SU alumnus and current SU graduate student, Tupper has been a major part of the SU landscape for the past several decades.

Tupper’s newest project is a time capsule, which he hopes to bring to campus within the next few months. Tupper wants to get a 55-gallon “indestructible” bucket to hold items that represent SU students as individuals and as a collective community. He plans to put the time capsule on one of his properties – 137 Clarendon Ave.

“Being involved in student culture and student life both as a landlord and as a student, I wake up everyday feeling like I’m 21 years old,” Tupper said. “I don’t feel like an old tired man, I think ‘Hey, what can I do to make the experience even better?’”

While he still needs to get clearance from the city to dig at this location, Tupper said he is confident in the outcome.

“It’s all still in the planning stages,” Tupper said. “I’ve already sent the word out to my tenants and they’re all excited.”

Tupper got the idea when his Tupper Property Management business partner Tiffany Buza told him about a few students who “buried some Zimas in a backyard 15 years ago and couldn’t remember where they put it.” He found it hilarious, and it got the ball rolling.

Students may not know the significance of 137 Clarendon Ave., the place where the stage was set for Livingstock, Tupper said. The precursor to Mayfest, Livingstock raged on from as early as the 1960s to the 1990s before it was ultimately shut down after a riot in 1999.

“That front yard has always been a historical place,” Tupper said.

Now the area is known as the heart of Kappa’s Corner — an area on campus dominated by members of SU’s marching band and brothers of Kappa Kappa Psi, a national honorary band fraternity.

But it’s not just Tupper’s tenants and members of the marching band that can get involved — Tupper said he wants everyone in Syracuse to get involved.

Kelsey May, a junior policy studies and geography major, is excited for the time capsule because it embodies a tradition that she holds dear.

“I’d be interested in learning what’s important to a student 50 years ago,” May said. “When you talk to someone that went to Syracuse, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I went to Syracuse too!’ There’s just this bond that (Syracuse students) have I hope translates well into the time capsule.”

Samantha Steinert also wants a hand in the action. The sophomore child and family studies major said she would put a laminated picture of Jim Boeheim in the capsule.

“School spirit is what unites us all -— we’re all crazy Orange fans,” Steinert said. “I hope that’s one tradition that sticks around.”

May and Steinert will have a chance to place their respective items in the capsule on the Friday before homecoming, when Tupper plans to hold a ceremony.

As for the contents of the time capsule, Tupper has a few ideas in mind. He wants a marching band uniform, any unused pieces of early-2000s technology and a pack of red solo cups, which he said is the “symbol” of students today, but he still wants students, faculty and local residents to have the majority vote.

“People almost always come back after they graduate. Forty or 50 years from now, there will be someone who comes back and will be there to open the capsule,” Tupper said. “And people now can come together and have fun thinking of things to put in it.”

Published on September 16, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Madysan: mgfoltz@syr.edu | @madysangabriele