On Monday, SUNY Oswego students were subjected to some unusual surprise when a “preacher man” took over their quad and said what some students claimed were “offensive remarks and beliefs”.

Jim Deferrio, a middle aged man, was seen holding a sign preaching on the SUNY Oswego quad a variety of different ultra-religious phrases other remarks unpopular on a liberal public campus.

Students grouped around Deferrio and gave their input before he was asked to leave by University Police, but soon was allowed to come back on campus as it is considered a public university.

Many students expressed their displeasure to the man and on various sources of social media, calling the man “homophobic” and claiming that his messages were “hateful”.

According to several different sources, Deferrio has been known to go to different colleges and university preaching a similar message.

Whatever his message may have been, he certainly raised a stir on the quad and on the SUNY Campus.

Originally Reported By Chelsey Moore

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From the Polka to the party the first ever Oswego Oktoberfest brought Deutschland to downtown Oswego.

“This is the first time running the Oktoberfest. So this is something that I think a lot of people have been interested in and we’re just putting it together for a fun community event,” said Event Director Chris Jones.

Jones felt that whether people came for the food or the fun. Everyone found something worth staying for.

Jones said, “Honestly I think it’s a little bit of both. For me the fall season’s the best time to eat and you know, we’ve got about three hundred pre-sales on the event. Hopefully with everything looking the way that it is hopefully about five hundred or so.”

Ice-cold local beer topped everyone’s glass while the polka band played on, but the beer wasn’t the only thing that was cold. With temperatures in the forties most individuals camped out. Enjoying some good times as well as some delicious local beer.

“Most of them are New York State breweries. There are seventeen different beers that are going to be on tap in addition to a couple wines and beverages. So there’s a long list, Adirondack, Woodchuck, Davidson brothers, quite a few on there,” said Jones.

The weather was cold but more than 400 turned out for the night’s events.

Jones felt, “This is fall weather, this is what Oktoberfest is about,” and he hopes to re-create the event again next year. And based on the reception from Oswego resident Trish Auer.

“I think, yeah I’d love to see it come back again and definitely more entertainment,” said Auer.

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Jones added, “I think that bringing more events into the community and encouraging not only the people that live here to come out, but start getting people to come here from other regions.”

And Auer felt, “I just love it there’s just so much more going on here. This year especially and it’s just so exciting to have everybody out and about.”
Although next year’s Oktoberfest is a year away you can visit WTOP10.com and take a look at some photos of this year’s festivities.