With the sound of students getting phone donations, the annual Missouri Southern Foundation Phonathon kicked off.

On Jan. 27 the Foundation started its Phonathon with a check from United Missouri Bank presented to University President Julio León for $1,500. Curt Betebenner, director of the Foundation, said this year the phonathon is attempting to raise more than last year’s goal amount – 2003’s goal was to raise $100,000.

“This year we want to raise $200,000,” Betebenner said. “I know that sounds very aggressive but what we’ve done is we’re taking multi-year pledges this year.”

The multi-year pledges are for three years. He said doubling the goal “sounds aggressive” but the three-year pledges make it easier to meet the goal. Betebenner said 21.4 percent of donors make a multi-year pledge. Dr. Beverly Block, interim assistant vice president for academic affairs, said the multi-year donations are a good idea.

“If you want to give a fairly sizeable donation, being able to give it once is sometimes a little bit difficult,” Block said. “Being able to spread it out over three years is a little more attractive.”

He said the reason the Foundation is taking multi-year pledges is because there are projects the Foundation wants to fund in the future, but would not get funding for them now. The proposed student recreational center is one of the projects on the list. Betebenner said the recreation center is one of the main projects, but not the main one.

“The big picture is to improve student athletics and recreational facilities, the recreation center is included under that one,” he said. “Over the next couple of years, we want to build a $2 million endowment to support the international mission. Then there is another $1.7 million figure in there to take care of technology upgrades.”

He said the upgrades include: updating the “communications department, get those guys ready for a digital conversion” and computer labs on campus. There will also be money made available to “hire and retain quality faculty.”

Student volunteers man the phones. Betebenner said there are currently 24 students trained to make the calls. Jeremy Latham, freshman psychology major and Shawna Nelson, sophomore marketing major are first time Phon-a-thon volunteers. They believe the Phon-a-thon is going to have a good year.

“They’ve got some healthy donations the other night,” Latham said. “I’ve never worked on it before, but it seems like they are going to bring in something to benefit the Missouri Southern University.”

Nelson said the first couple of nights went good for the Phon-a-thon, but they had some people who hung up on them or told them not to call anymore. She said the only way to handle the bad calls is not to take the calls personally and to move onto the next call.

The Foundation has brought in prizes to give away each night to the volunteers. The prizes were donated by area businesses.

“I thought it was great some of the businesses donated certain things so we could earn prizes for doing certain calls,” Nelson said.

The prizes are awarded on a point system and depending on the amount of the donation is how many points the volunteer gets. With prizes being given away, students try hard to win.

“It was between me and another girl one night, so we did rock, paper, scissors,” she said. “She won, because I’m not good at rock, paper, scissors.”

Block serves as the faculty co-chair for the Phon-a-thon this year. Block said her experience in the business department is what got her the position.

“The people at the Foundation this year decided to do something a little different and will have a faculty member involved to go around and ask other faculty to give money for the Foundation,” she said. “Dr. Leon asked me if I would be willing to be that faculty member. I am a former faculty member of the school of business, been there for 19 years. I know most faculty members on campus.”

The Phon-a-thon will continue until the beginning of April.