The Binghamton University Dean of Students Office is starting off the semester by inviting students to a month-long event, BING-O, which offers prizes for students who can complete a number of campus involvement tasks.

Students must complete any two rows of the BING-O board, available on the DOS Facebook group, to receive a DOS t-shirt. And students who complete the whole board will be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift card to the BU Bookstore.

“It’s a fun way for students to get involved with the school, become familiar with the DOS Office and for them to win great prizes!” Kimberly Coleman, a graduate assistant in the Dean of Student Office and first-year graduate student in the student affairs administration program, wrote in an email.

BING-O is one of several events the Dean of Students Office is planning to advocate school spirit. Morgan Appel, program coordinator for DOS, said the idea was inspired by BU President Stenger’s Road Map to turn BU into the premier public university.

“We decided to focus on school spirit this semester to help students start feeling like they’re already at the No. 1 university,” Appel wrote in an email.

Students participating in this month’s BING-O are encouraged to try new things on campus, meet new people and maybe even learn something new. This month’s BING-O involves tasks like taking a picture of yourself supporting a local business, finding a way to celebrate Black History Month and picking up a Pipe Dream and commenting on an interesting article. Once students complete BING-O, they can upload pictures by going to the website: http://tinyurl.com/codj3nd.

“We tried to diversify the board as much as possible by including events like basketball games, TEDx, theater department productions, and the MRC Cultural Fair, as well as taking advantages of the incredible resources this campus has like the Public Speaking Skills Lab and the Career Development Center,” Appel said.

BING-O is the first month-long event hosted by the Dean of Students Office. During previous semesters, Dean of Students April Thompson has focused on outreach and promoting the services of the DOS office.

“Typically we do small pop up events around campus people might miss, or even larger events that students still might miss,” Appel said. “We figured with an event that is a whole month long, all students would be able to participate.”

Juliana Girard, a junior majoring in sociology, said that events like BING-O help to unite the student body.

“Events that promote school spirit help us to promote pride for our school as well as unite the student body,” Girard said. “The more school spirit we have the more we as a student and faculty body attend events, the tighter our bonds will be as a university.”

Although BING-O was created to promote school spirit on campus, Jordan Clifford, a junior majoring in political science, said that he would like to see more outreach targeted for off-campus students.

“It seems like a cool idea, but I wish they did more outreach toward the off-campus students,” Clifford said. “It’s a good idea to get more people involved on campus, though.”