The Student Senate hosted Pumpkinpalooza with the Prez’ Tuesday night, which included pumpkin painting, candy apples and apple cider.

Student Body President Carson Gordon said the Senate was continuing with a tradition of hosting a fall event with the university president.

“We have some version of Pumpkins with the Prez’ pretty much every year and we decided to continue it on and make it bigger and better,” Gordon said.

Gordon said she thinks students benefit from having events where they can interact with Eastern President David Glassman.

“This is an experience that you wouldn’t get at  any other university it’s so unique to Eastern and the idea of us being ‘all-in,’” Gordon said. “It’s a great way for students to get to know Glassman beyond just seeing him at an event or staying on campus they get to sit down and have personal discussions with him just really get to know him on a deeper level just makes me sound like a more welcoming place.”

Glassman said he enjoys doing campus events with students.

“(I like) interacting with them in a fun environment where we aren’t really talking much about classes or midterms or finals and you’re just destressing and I like having the opportunity to engage with the students and have a good time,” Glassman said.

Glassman said the best part of the evening for him was learning why the pumpkins were painted the way they were.

“My favorite part of the night was having students talk about what was involved in creating their pumpkins and what they were thinking when the made the image,” Glassman said. “I always find that fun.”

Gordon said events like Pumpkinpalooza with the Prez’ are beneficial for students.

“One thing that we struggle with a lot in student government is making sure that people know that we are people they can come to being able to be recognized on campus so that people know we are the people leading them,” Gordon said. “So, this is a really great way to just casually sit down and introduce ourselves and get to know students normally shake their hand and walk up to them on campus it just gives us a little more casual inviting way to do that.”

She added she enjoys seeing students come together for events.

“I really love how it brings students from all across campus together regardless of what organizations they’re in or their majors, it just brings everyone together and makes them take some time away from classes and their busy schedules,” Gordon said. “I really noticed a lot of mental health benefits associated with that.”

Student Senate Speaker Senate Michael Perri said he felt event was the opportunity for stress release.

“It gives people an opportunity to get a break from all the school. We’re getting near a time of the year where stuff is starting to get a little stressful and having stuff like this just lets people forget about all of it for a little bit,” Perri said.

Gordon said she is looking forward to future events from the senate.

“I just look forward to helping all the senators with various work on their variations of events because it seems like, this here everything we’ve been doing relates to mental health in some aspects has been really incredible, but also in the spring, I’m really excited about driving forward with mental health topics more and just making it more inclusive and more specific to certain groups on campus,” Gordon said.

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]