By Elijah Penn, Contributing Writer
Seeing Dr. Joseph Cillo in his “I’m offended” T-shirt, covered in shaving cream, was too good to pass up for anyone who’s taken his class.
The scene outside Benedict’s Coffeehouse started a week earlier, when students in Assistant Professor Charlotte Braziel’s CRM 342: Evidence Collection and Preservation class planned a “pie-in-the-face” fundraiser featuring Cillo.
Their goal was to win the Day for Saint Leo Top 10 Challenge and earn a $6,000 match for the Crime Scene House. Held on the final day of the competition, the student-led event helped the criminal justice program secure vital funds and highlighted the university’s spirit of community and engagement.
The idea to have people donate for a chance to pie Cillo in the face came from criminal justice senior Emily Rendon. She pitched it as a joke, but to her surprise, it was taken seriously. With Braziel’s support, criminal justice sophomore Rylie Sanders called Cillo, who, unexpectedly, agreed with enthusiasm. The plan came together quickly.
“Once it became a reality, I was beyond excited because an idea I said as a joke ended up helping the criminal justice program raise money—and [it]was a huge success,” Rendon said. The class quickly got to work spreading the word and making fliers, echoing Rendon’s original quip: “Has Cillo ever made you cry? Pie him!”
Braziel emphasized that the idea came organically from students, inspired by another program’s campus fundraiser. She viewed the event as an opportunity for students to take initiative and collaborate toward a common goal.
“I was the mentor for the event, guiding it. Mostly, it was the students doing the work,” Braziel said. Her main objective for the event was to ensure that the students were involved, each contributing based on their skills.
Braziel admitted that last year she wasn’t sure how the Day for Saint Leo Challenge worked, so the criminal justice program didn’t raise any money. This year, with a better understanding of the challenge, she and her students strategized to win the $6,000 matching fund.
“From the very beginning, the criminal justice program treated it like a competition and began receiving ‘clicks’ [donations],” Braziel said. She noted that, as a competition, people who typically wouldn’t donate to a university fundraiser gave to support their team.
On April 10, many students volunteered their time under Braziel’s guidance to assist with the fundraiser. As the 1:30 p.m. start time approached and other students were released from class, the crowd began to grow. While some attendees stumbled upon the commotion and decided to check it out, most had already heard about the event and came for the chance to pie their professor.
Olivia Purdy, a criminal justice junior, canceled her workday after Cillo sent her a flier about the event. She wanted to show her support for the program, as well as for Cillo and Braziel.
“I appreciate all that our faculty does for this program, and it is the reason I will excel in my future,” Purdy said.
Support the program she did—Purdy donated five times to pie Cillo. She noted that he retaliated by throwing some of the cream back.
“It felt good to pie Cillo,” she remarked. “I think it was good for him and everyone to be all together, supporting our program as well as poking a little bit of fun back at him.”
Marikathryn “Kat” Bell, a junior criminal justice student, was happy to help the program. To pitch in, she created a poster for the event and promoted it around campus.
“I thought it was really funny when Braziel and Cillo’s wife pied him. I also had a lot of fun pieing him myself,” Bell said.
Cillo remained good-humored throughout the event, even though he remarked that the shaving cream tasted soapy. As students and faculty alike took aim at his begoggled face, he taunted the crowd and moved from side to side, but could do little to stop them.
“My only regret is not wearing an industrial plastic bag because cream went all down my shirt and back,” he said jokingly. In total, approximately 80 pies were bought during the event.
For Cillo, the event was all part of his role at the university and its core value of responsible stewardship.
“Part of responsible stewardship is getting to know your audience. The students are the audience. Instead of me controlling the classroom, in this event, they’re in charge,” Cillo said. Besides seeing the joy on everyone’s face, his favorite part was being able to talk and interact with his students in a way he can’t during class.
He viewed the event as a chance to share humor and respect, giving students an opportunity to see him outside the classroom in an entertainment setting. He believes it’s important for professors to show that the university is more than just a classroom; it’s about interacting with students beyond the classroom doors.
Cillo had just enough time to wash off in the shower before jumping into a Zoom meeting that evening. To his surprise, some attendees had already heard about the event. His phone also buzzed with messages from people as far away as Atlanta and California, who had seen pictures of students and faculty throwing pies at him.
Overall, the event and the fundraiser were a tremendous success. The 2025 Day for Saint Leo Giving Day, held on April 10, set new university fundraising records, with more than 1,000 individual contributions and over $1 million raised.
For the Crime Scene House, the criminal justice program received the most individual contributions in Day for Saint Leo history, amassing over $25,000 in donations and securing the top prize of a $6,000 matching fund.
The money will be a huge help for the Crime Scene House and will continue to provide future criminal justice students with the highest caliber education. Braziel said the funds would go toward much-needed supplies to enhance criminal justice classes, such as cameras, magnifiers, fingerprinting powder, and, of course, the cause that rallied the students: replacing the “painfully uncomfortable chairs.”
In the end, Braziel said that the success of the event was the result of the students’ hard work and teamwork.
1 Comment
Way to go criminal justice program! Sounds like a good time was had by all and a worth cause was supported. You picked the right professor to pie.