By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
Representatives from Baylor’s student government have returned from the Big 12 Student Government Conference. With them, they are bringing plans for new incentives to increase game day participation.
The conference — which was hosted by Iowa State University from Oct. 10-12 — saw collaboration between all 16 schools in the new-look Big 12 Conference. Aurora, Colo. senior and Student Body President Lily Davis said one thing she hopes to implement is a game day participation incentive modeled after one created by the University of Cincinnati which could see students winning prizes for attending games.
“[The University of Cincinnati’s] student government worked with their athletics [department] to increase engagement across all of the sports, which is something I’m also passionate about,” Davis said. “They created an app that’s called the Red and Black App … and it tracks attendance at different sporting events. And the idea is the more attendance you get, you get points, and the points go into a reward system.”
Davis said she is meeting with the University of Cincinnati next week to discuss how a similar system could be set up at Baylor. Though there is currently a similar system within the Baylor Sports App, Davis said she hopes to improve awareness of the program and continue to encourage students’ engagement with the app.
“The way we’re framing this administrative term is not [about]’ how much can we get done in our time,’ but ‘how many seeds can we plant?’” Davis said.
The incentive system pairs nicely with Davis’ main objectives in her term, two of which are student belonging and game day experience.
However, even if Davis does plant the seed for this initiative, there is the question of whether it will continue to grow despite student government’s constantly changing composition. To help preserve plans in progress, Davis and her team have been working on a strategic plan.
“That’s why we are creating a strategic plan. It sets forth the vision and the guideposts of where student government is going in these next couple of years,” Davis said.
With a strategic plan in place, Davis said that initiatives would be able to carry on over multiple years as they would be designed to achieve specific goals in the plan.
Developments in the game day attendance incentive plan will be reported as they arise. However, this wasn’t the only thing student government officials took away from the three-day conference.
Garland senior Kate Boyd, who serves as the chief of staff to the student body president, said that the conference gave some new ideas for how to better operate internally.
“[The conference] helps with collaboration. There isn’t another chief of staff to the student body president at Baylor, so getting to meet with other chiefs of staff is helpful,” Boyd said.
Boyd said that one important improvement student government can make is in its mentorship system. Although student government has a mentorship program within the legislative branch, Boyd hopes to help create a system that exists within the whole student government.
”I think something that happens at a lot of these other schools is they have different mentor programs for their freshmen. They really hone in and recognize what it is to be a first year in an organization,” Boyd said. “They do a really good job of walking their new members through everything.”
The goal of the mentorship program is not only to improve the experience for underclassmen, but also to improve retention rates. Student government has had issues in the past with student government members leaving the organization after — or even before — just one year in the organization.
While they were inspired to improve, student government members were also affirmed for their dedication while at the conference. Davis said that numerous people commended the team for how they treated each other and other schools.
“It was so reaffirming to hear advisors, or even members, come up and say, ‘Man, you all are just so kind,’ or ‘you’ve been so hospitable and sociable,’” Davis said.
