The Saint Louis University Athletic Department and Department of Student Life have teamed up to increase student attendance at Billiken events by offering a SLU Student Challenge.
The Challenge is a motivational program broken into three categories: fraternities and sororities, student organizations and residence hall floors.
“With this program, students have the opportunity to break down social barriers among residence hall floors and increase unity within student organizations,” said Terry Elmore, athletics events manager.
Students attending athletic events will have the opportunity to earn points for their organizations at SLU.
Anyone wanting to participate will need to sign in by showing a valid student ID and stating the organization they are representing.
If a student is in a fraternity or sorority, lives on three Walsh, and is a member of Student Activities Board, he or she will have to choose which organization to represent.
The fall athletic teams participating in the Challenge are women’s volleyball, men’s soccer and women’s soccer.
“We have one of the best soccer teams in the country, but without good attendance,” Elmore said. “We’ve got a good campus with some good athletics. We want to get 1,000 students at every event. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have that.”
Attendance at a men’s event will earn the students one point, while attending a women’s event will earn two points. Extra points are given because women’s games, on average, have had lower attendance.
On special occasions, students will have the opportunity to earn up to three points.
A special occasion is an event that is expected to have low student attendance because the opposing team is not well-known, or other events at SLU are occurring at the same time.
The winning organization in each category will receive $500.
Weekly updates of the standings will be posted on each residence hall floor.
Every fraternity, sorority and student organization will receive information in their mailboxes at the Student Life office. In addition, an announcement will be made at every home game to inform attendees which organizations are leading.
The Athletic Department wants students to support the Billikens and have increased the number of ways to communicate with the students, in hope to encourage more attendance at sporting events.
“We rank in the Top 25 in attendance for men’s basketball every year, but not in women’s events,” Elmore said. “We met with the students to see what incentive they needed to get them to an event.”
According to Elmore, if this Challenge is successful, the Athletic Department and Student Life would like to institute it as an annual event.
