Students could be seen all around the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Friday eating food, playing games and getting to know each other at Up All Night.

There was bingo in the Grand Ballroom, along with printing stations, trivia, a cash cube game in the University Ballroom and snack food at the Bridge Lounge.

Brooke O’Hara, a junior music education major and transfer student, wanted to get out of her room and win prizes.

“I wanted free T-shirts,” O’Hara said. “The alternative was sitting around doing nothing.”

O’Hara said she transferred to Eastern because of its good music program and because she liked the atmosphere.

O’Hara and her friends decided to go get their faces painted at one of the stands while waiting for the lines at other activities to die down.

Michael Farringer, a junior theatre arts major and transfer student from Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon, participated in the cash cube game where students grabbed tickets to get a T-shirt.

“I was one ticket away from a T-shirt,” Farringer said.

Farringer said he fell in love with Eastern and heard of the university because it is where his brother went to school.

“Everything felt homey here,” Farringer said.

Kaleb Wright, a freshman management major, is a fourth-generation Eastern student who said he enjoys the size of the campus.

“It’s not too big; it’s not too small,” Wright said.

He said he came to Up All Night to meet new friends and try to win free stuff.

Josh Bost, a sophomore social science major, went to Up All Night for two years in a row and said he enjoyed using the printing stations in the University Ballroom.

“My favorite thing is making phone cases,” Bost said.

One of the organizers of Up All Night was Danny Estrada, a sophomore sociology major and a Prowl logistics leader.

Estrada walked around and made sure everything was running smoothly and that people were having a good time.

Estrada said events like this are a good way to get students out and about instead of being in their rooms where they would be bored.

He also said events like Up All Night, because of the amount of students present, are good recruitment opportunities for members of Eastern’s fraternities and sororities.

“Seeing all these new students interacting with each other helps fraternities see whom they should approach,” Estrada said.

Samuel Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2812 or scnusbaum@eiu.edu