Paw Points program aims to attract more students to campus events

To keep the coyote spirit alive among students at sports games and student organization events, a system to reward them with university swag for attending those events has seen a surge in awareness to bring more knowledge of its existence.

The plan is called Paw Points, which provides points to students, and once they reach enough points, prizes are awarded.

Lindsay Sparks, director of transitions and student programming, said the program is intended for a couple purposes, including give-aways of apparel and different prizes.

It is also meant to inform the Student Services Office which student events on campus are largely attended, what types of events are most popular and when is the best time to hold events so students will participate.

The Paw Points system also lets them know what events they need to make changes to in order to gain a larger audience of students.

Sparks said the Paw Points program is largely intended to benefit the students.

“We also want to have a fun side to it and a little bit of a competition to see who’s going to the most events,” she said.

To see who is the ultimate Coyote fan, a leader board ranking student points allows students to see their progress.

For all on-campus events, Sparks said students are encouraged to bring their student ID, where the card will be swiped and the points will be added to students’ accounts. They will then be on their way to earning prizes.

Points are tallied after each month and again at the end of the semester.

Some of the prizes being given away include USD apparel, tote bags and travel mugs, as well as free food such as pizza and breadsticks from Dominos and other restaurants in Vermillion.

Senior Alec Adamski said he had never heard of the program before, but said he was happy USD offered it to get more students involved with campus events.

“It’s a good idea for freshmen to get them a little more motivated to go to events,” Adamski said.

First-year Abby Forener found Paw Points to be an added bonus since she already planned to attend campus events like the football games, Movies in the MUC and speed friending.

She heard about the program and was interested in doing a little more research to learn about the prizes.

“I would go to more events to win cool prizes,” Forener said.

Students can check out the leader board and other information regarding prize distribution dates and overall rankings at usd.edu/campus-life/student-services/paw-points/.

(Senior Jessa Nath inputs her student identification number into a card reader while attending the Preston Pugmire concert in the Muenster University Center Pit Lounge September 10. Anna Glenski | The Volante)