Taylor Dining Hall offered a special Easter brunch and dinner for students who stayed on campus for the Easter holiday weekend.

Taylor offered its usual weekend brunch items, such as made-to-order skillet scramblers, mini biscuits and gravy, and waffles.

They also offered broccoli cheese soup, glazed black oak ham with pineapple, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, fruit trays and dip.

Students could also decorate their own Easter cupcakes and cookies for dessert.

For dinner, students could choose from creamy potato bacon soup, fried chicken, smoked sausage with peppers and onions, fried okra and corn muffins.

Peach cobbler and sweet potato pie was available for dessert.

Colleen Nelson, a junior special education major, said she chose to stay on campus for multiple reasons.

“I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and it would be kind of far,” Nelson said. “I also wanted to stay for the concert and I wouldn’t have done anything at home.”

Kayla Bronnbauer, a freshman undecided major, said she did not go home for the weekend because she had no means to do so.

“I don’t have a car, so my mom would have had to come to get me,” Bronnbauer said. “Also, gas was too high.”

Kayleigh Nuermberger, a freshman music education major, said she decided to stay on campus to get work accomplished.

“I figured I’d stay here and focus on getting stuff done,” Nuermberger said.

Some students said they had alternate plans for their Easter weekend.

Julianna Ziola-Vega, a junior graphic design major, said she also did not go home because she wanted to attend the Far East Movement and Mike Posner concert with her friends.

Nuermberger said, to make up for missing the holiday with her family, she had Easter brunch with her music fraternity, Kappa Kappa Si.

Although all dining was consolidated to Taylor, Nelson said it did not appear busier than usual.

Dalton Lind, a freshman marketing major, said he ate at the Taylor dining center for the duration of the weekend. He also said he noticed it was never particularly busy.

“It was a pretty dead weekend,” Lind said.

Bronnbauer also noted the emptiness of campus.

“It was kind of dead,” she said. “It was also rainy, so not a lot of people were outside. It seemed quiet.”

Ziola-Vega said although Taylor was not as busy earlier in the weekend, it was more crowded for the brunch and dinner offerings.

“It was a lot busier today than I thought it would be,” Ziola-Vega said.

Students eating the brunch and dinner said the food offered was better than normal.

Bronnbauer said she had the ham and mashed potatoes and was somewhat impressed by the food.

“It was pretty good,” Bronnbauer said. “It’s better than I thought it would be, but nothing’s better than (my) grandma’s cooking.”

Sara Hall can be reached at 581-2812 or smhall3@eiu.edu.

Tracy Myers, a cook at Taylor Dining Hall, puts more pie out during Taylor’s Easter dinner Sunday. (Danny Damiani

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