President Bill Perry will attend his final student event before his retirement in June with “Picnic with the Prez” 3 to 5 p.m Wednesday in the South Quad.

Hosted by the student government, students, along with meeting Perry, will be getting Jimmy Johns, sign a poster for Perry, write a letter to Perry and play games in the quad.

Shirmeen Ahmad, the student vice president for academic affairs, said this is an event the student government hopes students will participate in.

“We want the student body to really come out to be able to show him that how much they really care for him and the impact they have on the students lives,” she said.

She said this is the last student event Perry will be a part of during his time at Eastern.

“He will be doing his thing that he has done all along, which is just walking around and interacting with the students,” she said.  “He will not be giving a big speech at the event.”

Ahmad said students can write letters to Perry, which will be given to him at the picnic.

“The letters that students can write at the event will be given to President Perry afterwards so he can see how what students really had to say about him,” she said.

Along with writing letters, there will be games such as kick ball, bags and others that students can play along with Perry.

The student government wants to end its last event with a big bang she said. They aim to have about 300 hundred students to come to the picnic.

“The student government for next year really want to have events like this so the new president, David Glassman, so everyone can get acclimated to a new face as president,” Ahmad said.

She said from the interactive events between the university president and students, they can not only meet him, but also tell him what they want to see him do while he is in office.

Chris Widdel can be reached at 581-2812 or at ccwiddel@eiu.edu.