Main Course Not Academic For Leftover Students Stuck At School, Gu Students Feast On Turkey, Dining-Hall-Style

Phil Schweiger couldn’t get home to Wichita, Kan., for Thanksgiving, but the 18-year-old Gonzaga University student was there in spirit.

“My family said they’re going to put a picture of me on the table,” he laughed.

Gonzaga’s dining services tried to make the holiday special for Schweiger and the 15 or so other schoolbound students who drifted into the university dining hall on Thursday.

Forget grandma’s homemade pie or dad’s secret stuffing recipe. These students were treated to Thanksgiving, Marriott-style.

Cafeteria workers baked two turkeys and a ham. They also prepared enough mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing and salad to feed 50 students.

“I haven’t tried the food yet,” said 18-year-old Reggie Oliver, a sophomore from Seaview, Wash. He eyed his slab of pumpkin pie. “I’m scared.”

Actually, said Emilie Ross, 19, he had nothing to worry about.

“The turkey is really good,” said the Seattle native, who said she had stayed in town to catch up on schoolwork.

The Gonzaga campus empties this time of year as most students go home or spend the holiday with friends. Dining services director Pat Smith said the cafeteria usually serves only about 30 students on Thanksgiving.

The students hunching over cafeteria food on Thursday had remained at school mostly for practical reasons.

Some are from cities thousands of miles away.

Others had to crank out a paper on the New Testament before Tuesday.

Matt Bashaw, a sophomore from Seattle, watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television as he tore into his turkey and potatoes.

With three assignments due next week, he had yet to crack a book.

“I’m going to try to finish one of them today,” he said.

Schweiger said he “didn’t want to pay $400 to fly home.” He ate stuffing and mashed potatoes but denied himself the turkey because he planned to eat Thanksgiving dinner with friends later in the day.

The dining hall also gave a few international students their first taste of Thanksgiving, American-style.

Daniel Zach, 20, of the Czech Republic, loaded up on turkey. Nepal native Bijay Bajracharya, 20, tested the turkey and potatoes before getting up to pour a bowl of Corn Flakes.

Like many others in the cafeteria, he said he is the only one in his dorm.

“The whole place is deserted,” he said.

“I live next to the bathroom and I hear the toilet flushing, so I know someone else is there,” said Ross. “I just haven’t seen them.”

A few students made new friends Thursday. Sophomore Jennifer Hill of Huntington Beach, Calif., was sitting by herself until a table of nuns on sabbatical at Gonzaga asked her to join them.

“We were going to go to Seattle,” said Sister Martha Naber of Knoxville, Tenn. “But because of the weather, we decided it wouldn’t be the best time to go.

“So we thought we’d come enjoy Thanksgiving here.”