Giving thanks, away from home

The Faculty Commons was open Thanksgiving day to serve a buffet-style traditional meal for about $14
The Faculty Commons was open Thanksgiving day to serve a buffet-style traditional meal for about $14

The students who chose to stay on campus or could not go home for over break were not denied traditional Thanksgiving fare.

Most campus eateries closed Tuesday night, so for students staying on campus over Thanksgiving break, food options were limited to reduced hours at McDonald’s or Grace’s Café.

“It was frustrating because sometimes I did not feel hungry early in the day, which was when most of the places were open,” sophomore Rodrigo Madrigal said. “By the time I got hungry all the places were closed. To make matters worse, all the delivery restaurants were closed because of break, so it was even more frustrating. I bought some snacks just in case I could not get any food at all.”

After dealing with irritating limited food options on campus, students did not have to worry about where to get their traditional Thanksgiving meal thanks to the Faculty Commons and some professors.

The Faculty Commons was open Thanksgiving day to serve a buffet-style traditional meal for about $14 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

“Students actually thanked me personally for staying open today and doing this,” said Faculty Commons Manager Thad Farrow.

Sophomore Vivek Subramanian was one of those thankful students. Subramanian was unable to go home because his parents had recently moved from Dallas, Texas to Singapore.

“I couldn’t really go back home and I figured it’d just be a good idea to stay here and hang out with my buddies,” Subramanian said. “I’m glad I did. This is the best food I’ve ever had at Duke. It was definitely a bang for the buck.”

Many students like junior Corinne Horn elected to stay on campus to finish up schoolwork before finals. Others felt the break was too short to go home.

“The break isn’t too long anyway and I don’t really have a traditional Thanksgiving back home, so I figured I might as well stay here, catch up on some work, and eat some good food,” sophomore Arun Sharma said. “This meal was definitely a step up from the Marketplace.”

By 30 minutes before closing time at the Faculty Commons, 130 people had their fill of turkey and mashed potatoes.

“Overall, I think it’s been a great success—I didn’t know what to expect,” Farrow said. “The owner thought it was going to be slow today, but we were very busy and we’re very happy with the outcome.”

The Faculty Commons was not the only option for students over Thanksgiving break. Michael Malone, visiting professor of theater studies, and his wife Maureen Quilligan, R. Florence Brinkley professor of English, opened the doors of their historic Hillsborough home to seven students who signed up through the Sophomore Year Experience listserv.

“The assortment of guests was very eclectic and it just made Thanksgiving really interesting,” sophomore Katrina Wisdom said. “It was really sweet of them to invite us into their lovely home.”

Wisdom added that after dinner, the group went to James B. Duke professor of economics Craufurd Goodwin’s world-renowned garden, and had the chance to go into his home to see some of his Bloomsbury Group art collection.

“It was really fun, it was a neat way to spend Thanksgiving with people from different backgrounds and talk about what we’re thankful for and what we’d hope to have accomplished this time next year,” Wisdom said. “For some of us, it was to have a screenplay performed on Broadway, for some it was to have taken the MCAT or the LSAT, for other it was to be abroad or to have cleaned the pantry.”

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