Eastern Illinois University is a school big enough where you get the feeling you are actually away from home, a feeling that you are on your own and a feeling that you are living a real college experience. It is small enough where you are not overwhelmed by the size of the campus, small enough where it is not too hard to find your classes, and it is small enough that anyone can find their way around the social scene. No matter how perfect of a size EIU is for any college student, there are some hints that current students at EIU, potential transfer students or interested high school seniors know about the campus.
EIU is a school where the mass majority of students are non-Greeks, but most of the campus involvement from Greek Week, Relay For Life, other community service events, clubs and especially the social scene is predominately members of Greek houses. With that being said the first thing you need to know is...
1. Greek life does more than people believe.
Greek life is a money tree for the university. From the fines they receive for non filled rooms in the chapter houses, ridiculously high individual chapter house fees due to the university, and the money they raise for the community from the multiple charity events they run throughout the year. Greek life accounts for a very high number of community service hours on the campus. Students of Greek life may be the lowest percentile groups of people on campus, but some debate that this small group attributes more fundraisers, community service events, social events, and educated seminars than any other group on campus.
2. CHUBBIES.
Don’t get me wrong, I love pizza. Coming from the Southside of Chicago where the pizza is top notch, I am very picky where I order my pizza from. When it comes to Charleston, when the 3 a.m. late night hunger swings hit you, the only number you need to know is CHUBBIES (217) 348-5454. This pizza is far from quality pizza, but damn is it good when you get back from a long night out. Whether you get the Pizza or Chubbie sticks you can never go wrong. You always have to the dipping sauces because that what makes this all the more worthy. Every time you wake up the next morning you will instantly regret your decision in ordering CHUBBIES, but will continue to do so after a long night out.
3. Dinning hall food.
I am going to be brutally honest with you, the food gets old and you need to set the perfect 30-minute timing window from when you first start eating because let me tell you, that food will fly out of you just as fast as it went in. If you don’t, well then you can be that freshman that leaves skid marks up and down the Taylor and Thomas dinning hall floors. Please do not do that, actually go ahead its funny for us to watch and even funnier when my friend Adrian has to clean it up. Go ahead let loose.
4. Late Night.
Yes I just ripped on the dinning hall food, but late night is completely different. For late night sober pizza cravings where you do not want to order CHUBBIES, Late Night is the way to go. With just a flick of the wrist, and a panther meal swipe, you can eat as much decent pizza as you can and make as many towering piles of endless ice cream as you want. It’s perfect for those late night burners, or the late night cram sessions, Late Night is everyone’s saving grace for broke college student’s.
5. Textbooks are free.
One of the many great attributes EIU has that attracts potential students, and keeps many students currently enrolled is the easy, painless and free, yes I said free textbooks for all of your classes. EIU provides every student, no matter what major they have, with free textbooks for the whole year. Not only is it free but it takes little effort to do so. You do not have to search for hours to find the correct author, year, and edition of the book you need. Here at EIU you receive a list upon arrival, and its as easy as 1, 2, 3 to find your textbooks.
6. Snow Days… no such thing.
EIU may be the stingiest college campus when it comes to calling off schools due to extremely excessive amounts of snow. Even when there is too much snow for the Charleston snow plows to even leave, you better put your skis and snowboards on and dust off your snowmobiles because you can bet your ass you are going to have class and most likely be given a pop quiz on that day as well. You might get lucky with a reasonable teacher who will call off class because it is like the day after tomorrow out there.
7. Your student account is now your best friend.
You accidentally break a window, ahh charge it to my account. Get a fine for burning down your dorm room, ahh just charge it to my account. You rack up printing charges, ahh charge it to my account. You go to health services, break a table at the bar, ruin or misplace a missing book, need more dinning dollars or even go to the EIU book store you will only need one phrase to get you through all of this…ahh charge it to my student account. This way you do not have to pay for it, but you can find ways to convince your parents that you needed it because they might just think it is apart of your tuition since it does not say exactly what was being charged. Your welcome.
8. There are other bars, with great deals that not many people know about.
Besides from the casual bars such as Ikes, Marty’s, Stu’s and the Panther Paw there are bars that every person needs to go to. Mothers bar is one of the biggest bars at EIU, one with the best drink deals that no one can beat, but the only downside it is uptown instead of on campus. I encourage people to take the 3 minute drive or the 10-minute walk to go enjoy this bar, you will not regret it.
9. EIU has the very first, original Jimmy Johns
Lets be honest, Charleston does not have much to offer, but what it does have is the original No. 1 Jimmy Johns. They are open early, and they are open late. Go there after the bars to grab a cheap bite and even a free sandwich every once in a while. It’s a great place to look if you cant find your too drunk to function friend, because lets be honest who doesn’t want a quick, cheap great sandwich at 3 a.m. after a couple to many drinks.
10. Greek life is not the only life.
Just because Greek life covers the mass majority of the social scene, it doesn’t mean you can’t have just as much fun as them. From the casual house/apartment party to the one or two bars all non Greek life flock to you can have fun wherever you go. Coming from male who has been apart of the Greek system for two years, going on three, here at EIU it is a shame that the non Greek and the Greeks spend their time isolated at labeled GDI bars and Greek bars. People who cares it is a bar, everyone goes there for the same reason, who cares if you are in a Greek house or not, we should want to go to every bar because we want to and not because that’s not where “my type of people go.”
11. Athletic atmosphere.
The sports life here at EIU is well, let’s say average at best. Don’t get me wrong the teams are pretty good, but when it comes to EIU athletic support from the college students, it’s lacking. When Jimmy G was here on campus, currently the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots for four games, it would be more common for students to be day drinking, having day parties in backyards than tailgating before the game or actually attending the game. If you are coming for a great college sports experience, you will be disappointed, but it’s OK. The day parties will make up for the lack of sports atmosphere that BIG 10 college campus have.
