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ON HUN) EIGHTEEN EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Friday, October 26, 2007
An -n ruor, vmicnigan
michigandailycom
FOOTBALL SAT URDAY FOR SALE
There's no advertising in the Big House, so some marketers are making deals with students
throwing tailgate parties in order to reach the lucrative college market
By LISA HAIDOSTIAN
Daily Staff Reporter r.
Look around you before the football game
tomorrow. In the midst of the two-story beer
bongs, bratwursts and the bongo man, there's
another subculture.
Michigan football games have become a feed-
ing frenzy for marketers and brand promoters
looking reach out to the crowds of students and
fans tailgating before kickoff.
Student tailgates are a marketing opportunity
because of the mutually beneficial relationships
that companies and party hosts can strike. Par- 422
ties benefit from increased attendance and hype
surrounding their tailgates, while companies can
promote their brands to an all-important market
at little to no cost.
Connell Brown Jr., a promoter for Vitamin
Water who blasts the fight song from the parked ~
Vitamin Water truck on Hoover Street during
football Saturdays, said the reason they come out i
every game day is simple.
"U of M is one of the top collegiate markets in t rh d
the country," he said.
He isn't alone in his thinking.
On any given Saturday before a home game,
parties on State Street and beyond are lined with
promoters pumping up both the crowd and their
products.
A banner hangs outside one house located at
the epicenter of student tailgating at State and
Hoover streets encouraging football fans to "Go
to Campus Corner."
Ross Drath, an LSA junior who lives in the.
house, known to many as BOX because of the
Greek letters on the front, said there's nothing r a
formal about the arrangement with the popular
liquor store. The residents of the house hang the
banner and, in exchange, they often get discounts
from the store.
"It's kind of a tradition," he said. "They just
gave it to us. We're friends with the guys."
Joe Kraim, a manager at Campus Corner,
emphasized that there was no money involved in
the transaction.
"Most of the people around here are our
friends," he said.
Some arrangements are even more informal.
Engineering senior Chris Williams, a member
of Alpha Delta Phi, a fraternity with a house on
State Street, said Red Bull promoters sometimes
just "show up" on their lawn on game days. With
no complaints about free Red Bull, the brothers
allow it. ALLISON GHAMAN/Daily
Fraternity houses on State Street are often tar- The residents of one house at the corner of State and Hoover streets sometimes get discounts at Campus Corner for
See TAILGATES, Page 7A hanging a sign advertising the store at their house, but they have no formal arrangement with the store.
THE ENDOWMENT
With fund
growing,'U
safer from
state woes
$1.4 billion endowment
increase won't result in
sharp drop in tuition
By ANDY KROLL
and GABE NELSON
Daily StaffReporters
FLINT - Days after University administrators
hailed a $14 billion endowment increase, the Uni-
versity Board of Regents approved the University's
financial report for the 2007 fiscal year yesterday at
its monthly meeting.
But that doesn't mean tuition will go down immedi-
ately. The University can only spend 5.3 percent of its
endowment each year.
Instead, officials say the University will use part of
the funds to increase financial aid.
About one-third of endowment funds used by the
University go to support financial aid for undergrad-
uates in the form of scholarships and fellowships,
according to a statement released yesterday by Uni-
versity spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham.
James Duderstadt, who served as University presi-
dent from 1988 to 1996, said increases in the Univer-
sity's endowment will allow for more endowment
scholarships.
He added that increasing the amount of financial
aid available in the form of endowed scholarships and
fellowships helps students attend the University who
otherwise couldn't afford it.
"(Endowment funds) allow the University to really
focus those resources where the need is the highest,"
Duderstadt said.
And with state funding levels increasingly uncer-
tain, the endowment provides a safeguard against
sudden drops in funding.
The state withheld its scheduled $29.6 million pay-
ment to the University for August because of cash
shortages. It got that payment only after legislators
passed a last-minute budget extension early on the
morning of Oct. 1.
Regents praised the endowment's rise from $5.7 bil-
lion to $7.1 billion in the 2007 fiscal year, which ended
on June 30.
Regent Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann Arbor)
See ENDOWMENT, Page 7A
FIGHTING ILLEGAL FILE-SHARING
'U' to warn uploaders
Vets tell of tough transitionto college
In hopes of reducing
RIAA notices, new
program to
e-mail dorm dwellers
By KATHERINE MITCHELL
Daily StaffReporter
To fight illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing,
the University will launch an alert system
on Tuesday informing network users if it
detects file uploads.
BAYU - which stands for Be Aware
You're Uploading - will send e-mail alerts.
to users in residence halls or Northwood
Community Apartments who may be ille-
gally uploading files. The service searches
for uploads made on the network using
peer-to-peer file sharing technology.
The new service comes after hundreds
of University students have been notified
by the Recording Industry Association of
America that they could be guilty of ille-
gally sharing copyrighted materials. The
RIAA traces IP addresses it thinks are
file sharing illegally on the University
network. It then passes those addresses
along to the University, which asks stu-
dents to take the material off their com-
puters.
The RIAA has threatened a few dozen
University students with lawsuits. To set-
tle, those students often have to pay fines
See UPLOADING, page 7A
Time served does
have perks;
acing nuclear
engineering
By ALESE BAGDOL
Daily StaffReporter
Like many college students,
LSA junior Derek Blumke has
trouble waking up for class.
But hitting the snooze but-
ton won't be an option in a few
weeks when Blumke, a Michi-
gan Air National Guard mem-
ber, ships off to southwest Asia
to serve another round in the
military.
Blumke, along with three
other members of the Student
Veterans Association, a group
he started, participated in a
panel discussion last night.
During the event, held in
the Michigan Union, the pan-
elists gave their reasons for
enlisting, what they learned
from their experiences and the
challenges of re-acclimatingto
civilian life at the University.
MBA student Sherman
Powell said he joined the Army
because he couldn't imagine
doing anything else with his
JEREMY CHO/Daily
LSA junior Derek Blumke started the Student Veterans Association to make the University more accessible to
veterans. A panel of students who served in the armed forces described the challenges they face in Ann Arbor
after serving in the military in the Michigan Union yesterday.
Potential toxin found in some sex toys
South U. shop to reduce
inventory of possibly
poisonous toys
By ARIKIA MILLIKAN
Daily Staff Reporter
What you don't know could hurt you,
especially when it comes to your sex toys.
For years, adult toy manufacturers have
been using potentially toxic substances as
a cheap way to soften the plastics used in a
variety of vibrators, dongs and anal plugs.
The chemicals of concern are a group
called phthalates (pronounced "thalates"),
and when these products age, the phthal-
ates leach out of the plastic, forming an oily
substance on the surface of packaging.
Phthalates are used to soften the plastics
made from Polyvinyl Chloride, also known
as PVC, and are present in products rang-
See SEX TOYS, page 7A
life.
"I didn't really see anything
that interested me in college,"
Powell said. "I enjoyed the
idea of doing real things with
real people."
But for some money was
more of a factor.
Engineering sophomore
Matt Orians said earning
money for college was his rea-
son for joining the Navy.
"I knew I couldn't afford to
come here or anywhere else,"
Orians said. "There's a lot
they don't tell you when they
promise youmoney for college,
though."
Orians, who said he has a
3.9 GPA in nuclear engineer-
ing, said his classes have been
a cakewalk because of what
he learned while operating a
nuclear reactor and working
on a submarine fbr the Navy.
But not all the veterans have
shared Orians' smooth aca-
demic transition.
Sam Kim, a fifth-year stu-
dent in the School of Educa-
tion, said it was difficult for
him to get used to studying on
a regular basis after serving.
"It was hard for me to accli-
mate academically," he said.
See VETS, page 7A
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