Got Wood? Got CLMP?

During the past month, those questions have swirled around campus as students and Wood Center staff promoted a planned $50 million expansion and renovation to the student union. And behind every promotion effort is a marketing slogan, in this case, one that's labeled on 100 T-shirts.

Wood Center campaigners purchased 500 stadium cups and 200 flying discs adorned with the slogan "One Campus, One Community, One Center." They also bought 1,200 yellow pins.

But perhaps the groups' most popular items are the 100 blue and black shirts it purchased that carry the "Got Wood?" slogan.

Members of the Campus Life Master Planning Committee (CLMP), which is backing the referendum question asking students if they would pay a new fee for the project, can frequently be seen wearing their black T-shirts featuring the slogan and its cousin "Got CLMP?" on the back.

Students love them, said Terin Walton-Rantz, co-chair of the student committee.

"There are students who say they want to buy these shirts," Walton-Rantz said.

It's all in an effort to inform students about the May 3-4 ASUAF elections, which will decide whether students will pay up to $160 a semester for 25 years for the Wood Center renovation.

Walton-Rantz said the committee members probably rejected 35 different themes until finally narrowing-in on "Got Wood?" They then budgeted $750 for the T-shirts.

But why a penis joke?

Campaigners point to an October meeting ASUAF President Joe Blanchard attended as the conception of the idea.

"I was sitting there and thinking, CLMP sounds like a venereal disease," Blanchard, who is up for re-election, said. "And everybody got excited."

Walton-Rantz said she then pitched the slogan, which is a play on the National Dairy Council's "Got Milk?" advertisements.

Other slogans retained similar pop-culture relevance, said Josiah Marineau, ASUAF government relations director and CLMP member.

"One Campus, One Community, One Center" easily abbreviates to O3, which is intended as a reference to the Fox drama "The OC," he said.

The hope, Marineau said, was to get students' attention. Committee members flipped through catalogs and trade magazines featuring photographs of shirts for other universities' student union construction campaigns, but all the clothing was boring, he said.

Behind all the puns is a purpose, though, said Brandon Meston, a committee member, ASUAF presidential candidate and author of the referendum question.

"Really, CLMP was sounding like a nasty STD," Meston said. "But, yeah, really it was to get people to ask questions."

And from the sound of it that marketing seems to be working, said Laura Milner, a professor in business administration.

"Promotions are very good things to use when you to want to build familiarity," Milner said. "If they're getting questions, then it's working."

Organizers acknowledge selling students on a new fee is not the easiest job. Students twice in the early 1990s rejected a bond proposal to build the Student Recreation Center before finally approving it in October 1990.

In an effort to avoid a similar outcome, organizers have spent $5,000 on the information campaign.

The committee budgeted $2,000 for advertising products, including two-inch highlighters featuring the woody question. Another $3,000 has gone to Sun Star ads, banners and graphic design.

All that money is coming from Wood Center and bookstore sales, said Tim Barnett, dean of Student and Enrollment Management and a committee member. Chancellor Steve Jones approved using the money at a meeting earlier this semester, he said.

"The purpose is to inform," Barnett said. "If they vote no, they vote no, and we'll find the next step."