Bigger and Better: Feast for Finals tradition lights up the NKU community

With the dreaded week of final exams approaching, the Resident Hall Association’s (RHA) ‘Feast for Finals’ came to save the day on Thursday, Dec. 8 and relieve the NKU community of their accumulating stress. The event took place in Norse Commons and floods of students showed up to the riveting event.

With breakfast for dinner on the menu, a live DJ and holiday-themed activities like ornament decorating and Christmas bingo, the event created a fun and relaxing atmosphere for students to take advantage of during a busy time.

Director of African American Student Initiatives (AASI) Greg Moore expressed the importance of events like this to the student body.

“It’s like that last big hurrah before finals,” Moore said. “This event has been a tradition for many years and as an alum, I’m glad to see it continuing. It’s a moment of encouragement for the students to just come and have a good time and enjoy each other.”

Sophomore and Norse Hall resident Tate Judge shared how this event brought a level of solidarity and encouragement to students like himself. 

“It’s nice to see everyone on campus, especially because there are so many commuters, you never really see this many people,” Judge said. “So it’s cool to see how many people are in the same exact boat as you, just wanting to get some food before we’re all worried about finals.”

This semester, RHA held the event in collaboration with AASI and the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), and it proved to be one of the biggest events the organization has held all semester.

RHA President Mohammed Omar commented on how the event differed from previous hostings. “We had over 200 students in the first 30 minutes. It shows a big sense of community and I haven’t seen anything like this in a while,” he said.

Students danced the evening away to songs blared by DJ Pretty Boy Troy in the familiar lobby of Norse Commons and members of the NPHC sorority and fraternity chapters strolled proudly while receiving enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

The event focused on stress relieving activities like ornament decorating, line dancing, and themed games with prizes.

In the spirit of encouraging community, representatives from different departments of the university volunteered throughout the entire event. Students got to see the likes of Eddie Howard, vice president of Student Affairs, making customized omelets and Brittany Jackson, director of Student Engagement & Programming, serving biscuits and gravy. 

Omar shared some of RHA’s prospects for the spring semester. “Our goal for the spring semester is to have a full executive board to plan more events like this,” he said. “We currently have two vacant positions, director of Administration and director of Public Relations, and we want to start expanding to fill our general body and hopefully get our community council started in each hall.”

With events like Feast for Finals making a splash, RHA seems to be well on their way to growing and achieving more in the coming semester.