Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and that means Eastern will be closed.

Starting Friday at 8 p.m. all residence halls will have their locks changed out, so students will not have access to any of the buildings over break. Students were able to sign up if they needed to stay over break.

This applies to all on-campus students as well as students living in Greek Court.

Lexi Claerhout, a sophomore special education major, lives in Alpha Gamma Delta’s chapter house in Greek Court.

Claerhout works as a student manager at Thomas Dining Hall and said that the hall will close Friday at 6 p.m. and none of the dining centers will be open during break.

Taylor closes after breakfast Friday along with Stevenson Dining Center after lunch, and the Food Court and Java B&B close at 2 p.m.

“It’s nice for people who have to work so they can go home and not worry about coming back or getting their shifts covered,” Claerhout said.

According to the Housing and Dining website, only students living in Thomas Hall, Lincoln Hall, Stevenson Hall and Douglas Hall can pay a fee to stay during the Thanksgiving, winter or spring breaks.

If students need to stay over break, they can contact the housing person in charge of their building, said Mark Hudson, director of housing and dining, but students should have contacted them earlier this week to stay on campus.

If students live in a building that is not open, there will be temporary spaces in an open building. The cost for the week is $85.

“The campus accommodates to students who can’t go home for the week. They work with them and their schedules even for those who need to stay the extra couple of days,” Claerhout said regarding the campus policy.

Halls will reopen on Dec. 1 at 1 p.m. If students have any questions regarding living situations or campus schedules, they can contact the Housing and Dining Office at 581-5111.

She said she is mostly excited to go home and be able to relax.

Claerhout said she can see positives and negatives to the residence halls closing.

“I think it’s nice for people that have to go home (that they) can leave right after, but it’s also inconvenient for the students that can’t go home until Saturday,” Claerhout said.

Ivan-Dante Perkins, a senior corporate communication major, lived in Stevenson but does not currently live on campus and said he does not completely agree with the residence hall closings.

“The campus being closed doesn’t affect me specifically, but I do know people who are affected by it and it hurts that they have no place to go,” Perkins said.

Perkins said if he could not go home, he would stay at his apartment.

Perkins said he is looking forward to the holiday.

“I’ve always went home to spend time with my family,” Perkins said. “I’m going home to spend time with my family.”

Rylee DeLong can be reached at 581-2812 or at redelong@eiu.edu.