President Lou Hencken was slicing bananas while sporting a lei. Plastic inflatable palm trees were in the background at Taylor Dining Center Sunday night..

The end of the semester finals feast with the Hawaiian theme Louie Luau gave students their fill of barbeque pork sandwiches, mini cocktail wieners, sweet ‘n sour meatballs and banana splits.

“We seem to get bigger and bigger every year,” Hencken said. “In fact, we had a line out there at 9 p.m.”

This was Hencken’s last finals feast as president.

“I’ll probably come next year to eat,” Hencken joked as he sliced bananas – his traditional role.

Many other administrators were seen working around Taylor.

Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, was seen behind the counter serving the main course. Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs, traded in his usual suit and tie for jeans and a T-shirt and shook cans of whipped cream.

Nadler said that this was his preferred attire.

“I’m just happy that this is our fourth semester doing this, and I think it’s really becoming an EIU tradition,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised tonight if we did 1,200 students.”

Students who attended the feast enjoyed the food, and many were pleased that it didn’t cost them a meal swipe.

“By this time, I’m out of meal swipes,” said freshman accounting major Alicia Buehne.

For some it was a much-needed break from studying.

“It gives people the opportunity to get their mind off of finals,” said Chassity Cawthon, sophomore elementary education. “It gets our mind off of all the stress to come.”

This is the fourth finals feast that has taken place, said Mark Hudson, director of housing and dining.

“A long time ago, we used to do this as a tradition, when Lou was the director of housing, but that was when we didn’t serve a Sunday night meal,” he said. “But now that we serve meals on Sunday night, it was less then a unique opportunity.”

The feast was shifted to later and banana splits were added when the feast was brought back.

Last semester’s feast went through 75 gallons of ice cream, said Sheila Poffinbarger, assistant director for Taylor Dining.

“The kids love it,” she said. “We’ll continue to do it all the time.”