Jeff Nelson, Student Union’s vice president for administration, has a plan to draw students to school events: free fast food.

One new program of Student Union, the Chipotle Challenge, aims to encourage students’ participation in campus activities. Nelson’s brainchild, the Challenge provides free burritos at sports games and major campus events.

According to Nelson, Student Union (SU) wants to focus on athletics this year, especially on the heels of the school’s three national championships earned last year.

“Lot of students love Chipotle and it’s free; I think it’s really going to drive kids towards involvement,” he said.

Many students said that free Mexican food would encourage them to attend more student events.

“I think college students jump at any opportunity for free food, especially Chipotle, so I would be there,” freshman Laura Beckman said.

Freshman Joseph Marcus said that the desire for Chipotle is widespread on campus.

“I would definitely go there if they had free Chipotle,” Marcus said. “Chipotle is a strong motivating factor for all college students, including myself.”

However, others feel that the new program will not make an impact.

“[Having free Chipotle] will probably increase attendance, but I don’t think it will increase it by a huge amount,” Doug Horn, a senior and residential advisor, said.

Nelson has been coordinating with Chipotle since April.

“[Chipotle was] very eager to work with us, get their name out there in conjunction with students’ events and to get students out there,” Nelson said.

SU’s encouragement of school spirit goes beyond free food. This year will see the return of GoCrossCampus, an Internet game in which residential colleges compete against each other to conquer various regions of Washington University’s campus in a format similar to that of the board game Risk.

In order to be further in touch with students, another new program known as “Flash Drives for Freshmen” will provide every freshman with a flash drive containing information and links to useful sites for activities, the judicial code and other practical places.