The student news site of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.

The Daily Eastern News

The student news site of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.

The Daily Eastern News

The student news site of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.

The Daily Eastern News

Conference housing available for stranded students and staff

Lawson Hall has rooms available for those who cannot make the drive home.

Alison Sinadinos, resident director of Lawson Hall, explained that the second floor of Lawson is set up as conference housing. This means it is a place for guests to stay at the university for conferences, camps and sometimes for faculty who are unable to make their trip home, often because of weather.

“We try and help out our fellow staff members,” Sinadinos said. “We want to give them a place to stay.”

Conference housing is mostly used for faculty and staff. While it is available to students, they would be charged an extra fee.

Sinadinos said the rooms used for conference housing are not like the rooms found in residence halls. Each room has linens, a TV and an individual bathroom. Staff members staying in the rooms are able to show up at anytime and do not need to reserve a space.

“We don’t turn them away,” Sinadinos said.

Jody Horn, director of dining, explained that some of the dining staff has volunteered to stay the night at Lawson to make sure they can work tomorrow.

Horn said that the weather has been limiting the dining staff and is the reason why the University Food Court, located in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union, is closed today and was closed early Tuesday.

“We’re not sure how much staff we are going to have, or how many students will show up,” Horn said, “Based on the crowd I don’t think a lot of people are getting out. I don’t want to keep people here and jeopardize their ride home.”

While all four dining halls will remain open today, Horn predicted that they will all be closed by 8 p.m.

This would mean Thomas Hall would not have Late Night Pizza and Tower Dining in Stevenson Hall will close an hour early.

Horn also said the weather conditions have also delayed the dining hall and food court food shipments from U.S. Foodservice in St. Louis, but they will still arrive.

The shortage of dining hall staff members has also affected the menu.

Horn explained that the desert being served at one dining hall required too much work for the amount of available workers to prepare, so they had to switch something simpler.

Seth Schroeder can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]

Conference housing available for stranded students and staff

Conference housing available for stranded students and staff

Some campus faculty have to stay in the dorms on campus because of the weather. (Audrey Sawyer

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