This weekend is Eastern’s Family Weekend and most students will be able to show their families the campus. Students will be able to show the families their rooms and classrooms.

The campus will provide students and their families the chance to eat on campus as well.

Mark Hudson who is the Director of University Housing and Dining Services believes that parents will like the dinning options that Eastern has to offer them for this weekend.

“There are several weekend family meals planned starting with Pastabilities on Friday night, which is an all-you-can-eat-buffet featuring an Italian feast with pastas, salads, and chicken. The Pastabilities buffet will be held in the Union, but this is just one of the many things planned,” Hudson said.

The other family meals include a continental breakfast starting at 9 a.m. Saturday in the vending lounge of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. There will be a box lunch outside of the Football stadium between 11a.m. and 1p.m. right before the kickoff of the football game.

Saturday night features another All-you-can-eat-buffet, this time featuring grilled chicken breast, salad, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes with cheese and bacon. To wrap things up on Sunday morning, the dining services will offer a Wrap Up the Weekend Buffet featuring scrambled eggs, cinnamon buns, and hash browns.

There will be one change to Eastern’s dinning centers this weekend as Taylor Dining Center will be the only dinning center open throughout the weekend. This means Carman Hall dinning center, which is usually open along with Taylor Hall on the weekend, will be closed.

“We decided to close Carman Hall dining center this weekend as a way to save food and money based on the poor turnouts the dining halls have seen from past parent weekends,” said Hudson.

Brian Nelson, a freshman majoring in musical education plans to have his parents take him out to eat when they come to visit him this weekend.

“I am going to convince my parents to take me out to eat because I really do not like the food they serve and look forward to eating off campus,” Nelson said.

Students who are still unsure whether or not their parents will be coming to town this weekend also wonder about what to eat.

Ethan Shotts, a freshman math and computer science major, is a student who knows where he will eat.

“I am probably going to go out to eat, maybe order a pizza, but I am definitely fine with only Taylor being open this weekend because I kind of like the food Taylor has to offer,” Shotts said.

Steven Puschmann can be reached at 581-7942

or srpuschmann@eiu.edu