Dobie Mall's Security Director Richard Cates spent his Thanksgiving Day working a quiet shift at the building's front desk.
"I would say probably about 20 out of 900 people are staying," he said after counting a list of names on his desk.
Each year, a small group of students stay on campus instead of hustling home to be with family. In some cases, family comes to them.
Freshman business student Kevin Cui was one of the 20 or so to remain in Dobie. His parents flew in from Manhattan.
"It's my first year to have Thanksgiving away from home because I'm from New York," Cui said. "My parents have never been to Texas and they want to see what my college is like. I'm going to hang out with my parents and show them around."
Law student Eric Taylor spent the long weekend in Austin instead of traveling to his hometown of Billings, Mont. He said he planned to eat Chinese food on Thanksgiving with a friend from Wisconsin.
"It's a long way to travel given that we only have two days off, so to try to get all the way home and all the way back with finals coming up is just too much of a hassle," Taylor said. "I'm studying all day long, and I'm going to be studying straight through the weekend."
American Studies junior Max Brough hails from England, and like many other exchange and international students, the break gave him a chance to relax and do
homework.
"The English don't celebrate Thanksgiving. It's a bit weird for me. I'm not doing much really - studying, catching up on some work, catching up on some sleep," Brough said. "There's not much going on; everybody's closed."
Associate civil engineering professor Kara Kockelman organized a group of mostly international engineering graduate students and their families for a post-Thanksgiving bowling and pizza night at the Union Underground, during a time when the rest of the building was closed.
"I wanted to have something where everyone has some kind of family," Kockelman said.
Natural sciences sophomore John Noble spent the weekend studying instead of visiting his hometown of Dallas because he was injured in October.
"I got in a fight during Halloween," Noble said.
Noble is a resident at the Castilian, which shut off its hot water supply Wednesday. He said he wondered if Gregory Gym was open so that he could take a hot shower, and that he and a few of his friends considered drinking beer to stay warm.
But not all students who stayed on campus during the break skipped a traditional turkey dinner. About 50 attended the Second Annual Residence Hall Thanksgiving Dinner in the Jester West Lobby. Bill Miller BBQ catered the event, and some participants brought homemade dishes.
"We did this to help the kids that didn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving, who couldn't leave and go home," said William Duval, Jester East administrative assistant. "There's not a whole lot of restaurants open right now for the kids to go to, so we thought we'd put this together for the campus."
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