Gannon University’s President Keith Taylor, Ph.D., is inviting all students to attend the fall semester’s Mid-Knight pancake breakfast from 9:30 p.m. until midnight Sunday in Gannon’s cafeteria.
The Mid-Knight pancake breakfast takes place every semester on the Sunday evening before finals week as a courtesy of the President’s Office.
The event is free and will feature Taylor himself, as well as other familiar Gannon faculty, serving up all you can eat pancakes, eggs, bacon or sausage and home fries to hungry students studying for their finals.
There will also be a chance to win some door prizes that will be raffled off throughout the evening.
In its most basic form, the event is a simple complimentary breakfast, but for upperclassmen, the event represents much more than just free pancakes and bacon.
Jess Echement, a junior advertising communication major and vice president of Gannon’s Advertising and Promotions Club, has attended the event in all of her semesters at Gannon and plans on making an appearance at the latest installment as well.
For Echement, the breakfast symbolizes something she can go do for a little bit that will give her a break from being locked in her room to study. And, although she said that the free food is a nice touch, she feels it is some of the other elements of the occasion make it such a memorable and appealing festivity for Gannon’s student population.
“It’s really the only time when you get to see the entire campus all in one place,” she said. “Pretty much everyone I know goes every semester.”
Echement said that the popularity of the breakfast has also helped her to get a feel for how Gannon builds harmony and strengthens bonds among its relatively small population through these types of events.
“I think it just goes to show how unified and small our community is when we have the president of the university serving pancakes to almost the entire student body at midnight on a Sunday,” she said.
Adam Greenman, a senior mechanical engineering major, has also attended the event in each of his semesters at Gannon.
“I’ve lived off campus for most of my time here,” he said, “and I get to see a lot of people I haven’t seen since freshman year at the pancake breakfast, which is cool.”
However, it isn’t the sea of familiar faces that has kept Greenman coming back in recent years, but rather the allure of a meal at no cost.
“When I stopped having a meal plan I started seeking out any opportunities for free food,” Greenman said, “so naturally I am going to fill up on free breakfast when it’s available.
“I think I won a door prize once too so that was like a bonus.”
Greenman said he encourages freshmen to take full advantage of the Mid-Knight breakfasts just as he has throughout his career at Gannon.
“You’re only here once,” he said, “so you might as well do everything that’s free and available to you.”
Echement seconded this sentiment.
“It might seem daunting as a freshman, but every year you will run into more and more friends,” she said. “You might have to stand to eat your pancakes, but it’s totally worth it.”
CHARLES LEAR
