Pemberton Hall sponsored approximately 68 people and 20 large pizzas for the “Pizza with the Pres,” event on Tuesday where students got to eat with President Perry.

The student government’s academic affairs committee sponsored the event.

Aseret Gonzalez, the chairwoman of the academic affairs committee and a senior sociology major, said she considered the event a success.

This year’s “Pizza with the Pres,” had almost double the amount of people of last year’s event with approximately 60 attendees.

“I got to see a lot of faces I haven’t seen before,” Gonzalez said, “I was really excited to see everybody.”

Andre Allen, a senior communication studies major and president of Black Student Union, said he was excited to interact with the president and students from different backgrounds.

Allen also said he hopes students who attended the event will become more comfortable with approaching Perry in the future because he said a lot of people are not aware of exactly how approachable he actually is.

“President Perry is someone you can really approach,” Gonzales said, “He’s here for the students.”

Molly Ferris, a sophomore psychology major and resident assistant for Pemberton Hall, said it was really respectable of Perry to take the time to get to know students, saying that most other universities do not sponsor events like “Pizza with the Pres.”

Ashley Hamilton, a senior psychology major, said she came out to the event because she wanted to see Perry since she normally did not see him around campus. Hamilton said she wanted to discuss Eastern’s future plans with Perry, including the current modernizing of campus and how Eastern spends its money.

“It’s the kind of school Eastern is,” Perry said, “I’ve always believed that connection with the students is the most important part of it.”

Perrry said his undergraduate education at Park College in Parkville, Mo. stuck with him because the school was smaller and emphasized connections between students, faculty and administration.

Perry also said he attends events like “Pizza with the Pres,” in order to hear feedback from students about Eastern and find out about how he can make progress on what student’s think is important.

Perry said he does other events designed to meet with students such as “Charleston Chew,” “Escape from Old Main,” and just walking around campus.

“I thought it was a really good chance to meet the president,” Ferris said, “He’s a big influence on campus.”

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].