ISU Dining will help students through their late night study sessions and snack and coffee breaks throughout finals week.

This year, Snack Attack will be held at Conversations Dining. The annual event is a way for students to take time off from their studies. It has been around since the early 1990s.

“Students can take a break, get some fuel in them so they can study,” said Nancy Levandowski, director of campus dining services. “Students can get some hot food in their belly after a long night and go off and take their test.”

Over the years, Snack Attack was at Union Drive Marketplace and Seasons Marketplace, so this year ISU Dining decided to try it at Conversations.

“I’m afraid they’ll love it at Conversations and never move it,” Levandowski said. 

“People may come who never came before,” said Mary Ellen Metzger, manager of Conversations Dining.

Snack Attack costs nothing and includes snacks such as muffins, bananas, pumpkin bread, cookies and breakfast pizza.

During Finals Week, Conversations Dining will host Finals Week Bundle Express.

Conversations will be open at 7 a.m., half an hour early, to coincide with finals at 7:30 a.m. It will have bundle packages that include items such as coffee or hot chocolate, Anderson-Erickson yogurt, the breakfast pastry of the day and whole fresh fruit. 

Seasons will also be opening at 6:30 a.m. for convenience. 

Banana Split Night, a Cyclone tradition, will happen Tuesday night. It has been around for about 28 years. In all the dining centers, students can make their own banana split.

“Just to kind of have some fun,” Levandowski said. “Students can have a little joy.”

For all the pizza lovers, there will be a Deep Dish Pizza dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 17 at Conversations. 

The Wallace-Wilson C-Store and Bookends Cafe are also open for students to grab a quick snack until 11 p.m. all week. Hawthorn Market & Cafe, East and West Side Markets are open until midnight. On Friday all of them will close early. 

“Students’ number one objective is school, so we adjust so they can take their finals that week,” said Kristi Patel, assistant director for campus dining services. 

Students working at the dining centers will have to balance the change in working hours with their own final exams.

“It’s a delicate balance between serving the students and making sure our employees get their studying done, too,” Levandowski said.