Auburn University has surpassed its $500 million “It Begins at Auburn” Campaign goal with a $5 million gift from Raymond and Kathryn Harbert of Birmingham. The gift brings the campaign total to $504,657,718, the largest amount of private dollars ever raised in the state of Alabama.

Read more at AU’s Wire Eagle

The students who work at the help desk at Auburn University’s Foy Student Union have been fielding a lot more phone calls than usual lately.

And it’s all because of Oprah Winfrey.

The number for the info line was listed in the March issue of “O, The
Oprah Magazine,” as one of the “5 Numbers You Want on Speed Dial.” And
since it hit newsstands mid-February, student supervisor Gina Groome
said they’ve fielded a lot more calls from middle-aged women. The
typical clientele for the info line is college students from Auburn or
elsewhere, but O’s subscribers are mostly women in their 40s.

“The people say they got the number from O. I had three just today,”
Groome said Tuesday.

No one really knows how the segment writer learned about the desk, but
workers guess it was through word of mouth. It’s perhaps the most
reasonable explanation for how thousands of people from across the
country learn about the line anyway. They say it’s probably alumni who
remember using the number during their college years and suggest it to
friends and co-workers to answer any random question they have, day or
night, four days a week.

“I have no idea how they got the number,” said senior Shatesha Taylor,
who talked to the writer. “But I was excited because it was Oprah.”

Students say this is the biggest publicity plug they’ve ever had. The
average paid circulation for O is more than 2.7 million copies.

Junior Ashley Horton said a good number of the new callers have just
inquired about the info line rather than making a specific request.

“They are surprised we get paid to do this,” she said. “I tell them
‘if you worked from 3 to 6 a.m. you’d want to get paid too.’”

But then those that do have a question generally ask about antiques,
she said.

Other numbers listed included a free version of 411, a traffic line for
major roadways in the country’s 50 largest cities, a sex info help
line, and one with counselors ready to help people quit smoking.

“I’m a marketing and communications major and I still don’t
understand (how people learn about the info line),” said Groome.

Students are told as early as Camp War Eagle that the desk exists
primarily for them. Horton believes because the incoming freshmen are
told the desk has the ability to answer any question about Auburn, they
field the same quirky trivia questions every year, like how many bricks
make up the Haley Center (2,974,358).

“It makes for a great conversation piece, and sometimes I learn
something I didn’t know,” Groome said. “Like there’s a lunar eclipse
on Saturday. Chances are I would have never known that.”

Groome said she’s been asked all sorts of questions, but the oddest
is for medical advice.

“People must really trust us if they are calling us instead of a
doctor,” she said. “They may not realize it’s college students on the
other end.”

The Internet may be the main tool used by students at the desk, but
answers to anything specific to AU are found through a database that’s
updated as often as things change on campus, Taylor said. It’s best
for the trivia-type questions, she said, like the numbers of bricks in
Haley or how many golf balls would fit in Jordan-Hare Stadium (1.8
billion).

Horton and Groome expect their 15 minutes of fame to be up when O’s
readers get their next issue.

Link: OA News