One ASU staff member is looking to make a new Thanksgiving tradition this year on campus.
Amy Greenland, director of Off-Campus & Commuter Student Services, will be hosting a Thanksgiving celebration, including dinner and a place for students and community members to watch the Sun Devils play USC on a 50-inch TV.
"Everyone talks about tradition," Greenland said. "This is one more place that I'm hoping will be a family-type experience."
Greenland said she experienced a similar tradition at another institution when she was a graduate student and staff member, and hopes to recreate the celebration at ASU.
She added that she is hoping the dinner will attract the international student population, resident students that cannot travel home and community members who do not have a place to go for Thanksgiving.
"I would assume it would also attract students and faculty and staff who aren't able to afford the additional splurge on a turkey," Greenland said.
The event has been planned since October and has 49 confirmed guests, including one student who is bringing 10 family members, she added.
The Thanksgiving dinner will take place on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the OCCSS building at 915 S. Rural Road.
But other students will be heading elsewhere for the holiday, like philosophy senior Josh Santobianco, who said he is celebrating Thanksgiving by going to Tucson to spend time with his friend and his friend's family.
"It (is) more of a tradition for his family," Santobianco said. "I'm just going down there to chill."
Santobianco, who is originally from Delaware, said he was looking forward to eating both Mexican food and American food for a Thanksgiving dinner.
Secondary education Afton McAferty said she is staying in town to have dinner with her family, a tradition that is about 10 years old.
"We play football after dinner," McAferty said.
Biology freshman Amanda Conovaloff said she was planning on having Thanksgiving dinner at her aunt's house in Glendale, where her family gets together every year.
"I just like spending time with my family," Conovaloff said. "I usually don't see them much."
Reach the reporter at: mculber@asu.edu.
