As part of reviving the dormant IUP Economics Club, Dr. Jozefowicz and myself included chaperoning Economics Club students on an annual weekend educational trip as part of our own slated fall activities.  Fall 2000 marked the inaugural adventure.  By popular request, the destination selected was none other than New York City so that we could tour the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).  Taking advantage of the opportunity to request and utilize an IUP van, six students and ourselves left Thursday evening and drove as far as the East Stroudsburg Super 8, which proved to be an adventure in itself as I drove through rain and fog and avoided deer lining the edge of the road (not to mention the fact driving a 15-passenger van requires some adjustments in driving habits and a pillow so I could reach the floor pedals!).  We continued on our journey through the Lincoln Tunnel and into the city Friday morning with several students’ eyes opened wide with delight as this was their first encounter with New York City.  We gratefully left the IUP van parked near our hotel fully convinced that utilizing the subways and cab services would place us on a higher indifference curve than driving ourselves.

We arrived early for our scheduled appointment at the NYSE.  We learned about the exchange through interactive displays and a film, and we viewed the actual floor of the exchange.  On this particular day, the traders seemed more interested in watching us, the spectators, as the stereotypical chaos on the floor was absent.  Ever vigilant for good values, we ended our time at the exchange by raiding the gift shop and purchasing memoribilia on sale (did you know the NYSE has changed its logo emblem?).

From the NYSE, we had our picture taken with a bigger than life statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall.  I even saw someone I knew from my undergraduate days at Baylor University.  (Even though nobody believed me at the time and kept telling me she must just look like someone I knew–alas, I proved them all wrong when we ran into the woman again later that evening–it is a small world after all!)  Next, we walked to the World Trade Center towers.  From the observation deck at the top, we viewed the sights of endless buildings in one direction and the harbor including the Statue of Liberty in the other direction.  (We concurred that the Statue of Liberty somehow looked smaller in person than our preconceived mental images.)  We experienced up close and personal the crush of people in the subway system as we rode to the Times Square area for dinner.

Saturday included a mix of activities, depending on the student’s interests.  Some of us toured the NBC studios at Rockefeller Center, just missing the dress rehearsal of Saturday Night Live.  Others walked a bit in Central Park.  (Our rules for the weekend included that no one was to wander off anywhere without telling Dr. Jozefowicz or myself, and no one was to wander off anywhere alone.)  Some chose to see Rent on Broadway, while others opted to see the more traditional Les Miserables.  We rejoined to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Café and ended the evening by walking down along 5th Avenue–evident was capitalism at work as we passed by Tiffany’s, Prada and other glitzy shops on some of whose steps the homeless had set up their temporary cardboard homes for the night.  We strolled through St. Patrick’s Cathedral before cutting back across to Broadway and hailing cabs to take us back to our hotel.  After a harrowing cab ride, the gentlemen weren’t quite so convinced that they were still on a higher indifference curve than if we had driven, but I suppose that was as much a part of the requisite learning experience about the city as anything else.