Editor’s note: Student Government Association’s president’s was misspelled. It should be Jordan Whitledge.
Students can earn free prizes for attending mens’ and womens’ basketball games starting this fall.
Every time a student swipes their card at a basketball game, it will be recorded, and whichever student earns the most points by the end of the season will win a prize. If the program works well, students will be required to swipe their cards to get into games, Student Government Association President Jordan Whiteledge said.
Whiteledge said the university has acquired card swipe machines students can rent out to record events. It can record how many students are attending events to access how successful an event is, and it can find out which times are the busiest during an event.
RedZone President Samantha Ray decided to utilize this new technology to build a program to encourage student attendance at USI sporting events.
“It’s an idea that I found out from different universities across the United States,” Ray said.
When a student comes to a mens’ or womens’ basketball game, they will be able to swipe their card at the door. Ray said each game will have varying point values, so while one game will give a student 50 point, a game on a different day may be worth 100.
At the end of the semester, whoever collects the most points by swiping their cards will win a prize. Ray said she is trying to collaborate with more people to make the prize as big as possible.
Ray said she will contact students throughout the semester to let them know how many points they have and what place they are in.
Right now, the program only applies to mens’ and womens’ basketball games.
“If this program goes well, I’m hoping to move it to other sports as well,” Ray said. “This year I want to do a trial run and see if there’s a lot of interest in it.”
The program starts for the first basketball game of the season on Nov. 13 at 3 p.m. in the Physical Activities Center.