O t o0h cre After a dismal finish last season, Morgan Trent is leading the Wolverine defense. FootballSaturday tie 13idiTgan Ba 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 TODAY'S WEATHER H I: 59 GOT A NEWS TIP? LO: 49 Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. ON THE DAILY BLOGS The Greek system's anti-hazing week MICHIGANDAILY.COM/THE WIRE INDEX NEW S ...... ................ 2......2A CLASSIFIEDS.....................6A vol. CXViI,No.37 OPINION ..........................4A SPORTS...........,. .8A 7 The Michigan aly ARTS... . ... 5A FOOTBALLSATURDAY..........1B / A A