When students come back from summer break, they will start being rewarded for going to campus activities with the advent of Ziggy Points.

When students attend a campus event this fall, whether it’s a sport, academic program or something else, they can scan their BG1 card to get Ziggy Points added to it, said Jill Walters, graduate assistant and chair of the Student Engagement Team.

Each of the more than 50 events a semester will be worth the same amount of points for students. The Ziggy Points will add up throughout the whole year and then they will rollover between semesters, but not from year to year.

Students can earn University gear based on six reward levels, Walters said.

“All the prizes will be BG spirit prizes,” Walters said. “The whole point of the program is to get [students] connected to the campus and show their BG spirit.”

Dakota Wright, a junior, thinks Ziggy Points will help encourage students to go to more events.

“It will work if it is widely advertised,” Wright said. “I do think that if that happens, it will get people to go to more events on campus.”

Wright thinks that the bigger prizes should be discounts to the campus bookstore.

Although Wright is optimistic about the new program, freshman Audrey Quinn has doubts about Ziggy Points.

“I think this is more for [students] who live on campus,” said Quinn, who is moving off campus next year. “If I want to go to an event, I’ll go to it, but not because I could get Ziggy Points.”

Quinn is still interested in the program despite her doubts.

“People like free stuff. Personally, I would like to get hoodies or sweats for my prizes,” she said.

Walters was concerned about the program possibly excluding students.

“We have decided that the events that will have Ziggy Point rewards will be ones that any student can go to for free,” Walters said.

Students can keep track of their Ziggy Points and point levels through an application in their web portal next year, said Chris Wammes, senior application developer, who is overseeing the development process.

“There will also be a calendar that shows upcoming events, too,” Wammes said.

Walters has heard about programs similar to this one from other schools, but she wanted this one to be different.

“Many schools just do this with sporting events,” Walters said. “So we wanted ours to offer more than sports. We will be including places like the library, Learning Commons and Career Center as a place to earn Ziggy Points along with other events like sports and on-campus activities.”