Student Activities and Engagement creates Eagle Engagement Points system to bolster student involvement on campus

by ANNA GROSSNICKLE

Staff Writer

This semester, the Office of Student Activities and Engagement began a new program that will allow students to be rewarded for attending on-campus events. The points that students earn are all overseen by the professional staff of the office. All currently enrolled students are eligible to participate in this program. 

“Eagle Engagement Points are a way to encourage and incentivize attendance at events,” said Director of Students Activities and Engagement Sandrine Sutphin. “Events are tagged with various words like ‘professional development’ ‘wellness’ ‘diversity’ etc. and the more events students attend, the more points they’ll gain.” 

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, events had to be moved online or otherwise adjusted. As in-person events return, the office is working to adjust.

“One of the main goals of the Office of Student Activities & Engagement is to get students more involved and connected on campus, and our hope is that having an incentive program like Eagle Engagement Points will help to encourage students to attend more events,” said Sutphin.

As students earn Eagle Engagement Points as a reward for attendance at events, these points can eventually be exchanged for prizes. Each event is worth anywhere from one to five points.

“While there are benefits to attending any kind of events, we do offer more points to events that are considered more educational, developmental, and/or can enhance what students are learning in the classroom,” said Sutphin.

By visiting UMW Presence, students can find a catalog of events that can earn them points, organized by the amount of points that they are worth. For example, events that are tagged as “social,” such as February’s Eagle Con, are worth only one point. However, attending an event that is tagged as “service,” such as January’s Canal Path Cleanup, is worth five points.

Students who choose to participate in the program will get to decide what the prizes will be. Those interested can fill out a form through UMW Presence to submit their suggestions for prizes. 

Students who visited Winter Club Carnival were given small cards that advertised the new program. 

“I have not seen or noticed any promotion for [Eagle Engagement Points] around campus or on social media,” said junior English and studio art double major Arden Jones. “I am already interested in going to academic events. The eagle engagement points are an added bonus.”

Many students are unaware of the new Eagle Engagement Points program. 

“I haven’t seen much promotion for Eagle engagement points on campus yet,” said senior history major Katherine Rayhart. “However, I wouldn’t be surprised if SAE has flyers up on the bulletin boards and I haven’t seen them yet. I got a card at Club Carnival that talked about the points.”

The Student Leadership Symposium is one event that provided students with Eagle Engagement Points. The event is tagged as “leadership,” which makes it worth three points. The Leadership Symposium is an event that happens every semester that helps teach skills to student club officers.

The Office of Student Activities and Engagement hopes to expand the Eagle Engagement Points program. The goal is to eventually allow students to earn points from activities other than on-campus academic events. 

“Currently the main way to earn points is by attending events, but soon we’re also hoping that students can gain points by participating in a variety of experiences (like being a student leader, working on campus, doing community service, etc.),” said Sutphin.