The North Dakota State University Foundation and Alumni Association have managed the people in yellow suits at football games, but now they will be under student government’s control.
Those people are yell leaders, part of the yell leader program. The group’s Facebook indicates it is a student organization with a mission to create a respectful athletic event while driving fan engagement.
Yell leaders are in charge of “directing and motivating the crowd at athletic events,” Mason Wenzel, student government’s executive commissioner of finance and author of a senate resolution pertaining to the yell leaders, said.
The shift in management from the NDSUFAA to student government has to do with cut funding.
Upon hearing that the program was no longer funded by the alumni association, Wenzel said he saw it as an opportunity to improve NDSU’s atmosphere and as an outreach to get students involved at another level, so he took it to student government.
The decision to sustain the Yell Leader Program was made official by the passing of a student senate resolution Sunday.
The resolution describes yell as a valuable source of leadership on campus, but under the influence of student government the plan is to implement them into the community as much as possible, including outside of sporting events.
“Obviously, we don’t want to stretch them thin but we want them to get the opportunity to be involved in more things that just football games,” Wenzel said.
Despite the change in management, the application process will be similar if not identical.
Wenzel said from the “broad details” student government has worked out, they do in fact plan to keep the yellow suits.
“Not only are they great leaders in our community but they actually have a huge impact on what goes on,” Wenzel said.
One of the more prominent things the Yell Leaders have worked over the school year is discouraging “inappropriate” and “racist” chants at sporting events, the resolution stated.
The senate resolution said student government plans to adopt the program under the condition that the program is both viable and affordable to student government.
Yet to be determined is the amount of pay yell leaders will receive under student government’s leadership.