Finals at UW-Waukesha Begin With Pancake Breakfast

There’s little joy in final exams. But Pancake Day is another story.

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha enjoyed the tradition of free pancakes served up by faculty and staff Thursday. The breakfast coincides with study day, the day preceding final exam period, which starts Friday and runs through May 19.

Pancake Day happens twice a year on this campus of about 2,000 students. This is its third year, thanks to the efforts led by Joseph Foy, associate professor of political science.

When this tradition began in the fall of 2008, the pancake breakfast volunteers served around 150 students.

In a campus email Thursday afternoon to thank volunteers, Foy said his troupe used 12 boxes of mix and served an estimated 960 pancakes.

“We now usually serve somewhere between 250 and 300 students,” Foy said.

Foy got the breakfast idea from his days as an undergraduate student in Montana. He recalls that during final exam week there,  the cafeteria would open and faculty members would cook students’ breakfast if they were still up studying.

Foy thought that if faculty and staff could use study day at UW-Waukesha to provide the same lift, it would bring more students to campus to take advantage of study sessions and extended office hours to prepare for exams.

Thursday’s breakfast lured Lauren Blahnik, a freshman.

 “It’s nice,” she said. “It’s another opportunity for students and staff to get together.” 

The event relies on out-of-pocket donations, whether it’s money or supplies, such as pancake mix and syrup. And there’s “usually more volunteers than we seem to have space for,”  Foy said.

At various food stations, there are administrators, professors and student services workers flipping pancakes, offering syrup and laying out utensils and spreads.  While students are waiting for food, faculty and staff distribute a hard copy of additional study sessions and office hours.

Foy said that since this tradition began,  “I’ve begun to flip a lot more pancakes at home, and for Christmas, I actually received a collection of Star Wars pancake molds.”

There have been some specialty pancakes. Tim Dunn, assistant professor of philosophy, is usually good for bringing in some blueberries for pancakes.

“People have started to one-up a little bit,” Foy said. “I know there was a station last year where they were making turtle pancakes with chocolate chips, walnuts, and like a caramel kind of glaze that they would do for it.”