Effort launched at Utah State University to get more undead students into class

Organizers of a game pitting Utah State University students against the living dead are trying out new strategies to ensure the desperate effort to evade a ravenous legion of brain-hungry zombies doesn’t impact class attendance.

"We've gradually been changing the emphasis of the game over the past few years," said Brock Rohloff, the president of the annual Humans vs. Zombies contest, which has in years past included thousands of students armed with toy weapons. "We've abandoned the use of Nerf guns, and we've made the games more about developing leadership skills and teamwork. This year, we wanted to make sure that students were actually going to classes throughout the week."

In the past, Rohloff said, students avoided attending classes in order to avoid being tagged by members of the opposing team.

"There had been a lot of frustration from teachers because students were avoiding their classes," Rohloff said.

This year organizers decided to offer an incentive to participants for class attendance. When students take a picture of themselves in class and upload it with the hashtag “#thelearningdead,” they will be entered into a raffle for prizes.

Zombie Aggies vice president Mikaila Young said each participant would be allowed to submit a photo to the group's Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages for every class attended.

"So if they have the same classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they can submit a new photo of themselves for every class all three days," Young said.

Young is hoping the new policy will keep students invested in the game and their educations.

Young said she had already seen more than 25 photos with the hashtag on the group's Facebook page.