Tucked away in the bowels of the Durham Center, a group of seniors sits in front of computers, headsets balanced on their heads.

Their mission: to raise money for the senior class gift.

Monday night marked the beginning of the first of three stages of the Senior Class Council’s call-a-thon, which has a goal of raising $80,000 for the relocation of the sand volleyball and tennis courts now located north of Beyer Hall.

“[Monday] was incredible. Everybody was just giving what they could,” said Senior Class Council officer Troy Carmann. Volunteer callers raised about $1,600 Monday night from seniors graduating in May.

Every call is automated through a computer database and a software program which draws random phone numbers and dials them at the click of a mouse button.

The name, address and major of each potential donor is displayed on the screen in front of the caller when the computer puts the call through.

“I think MacGyver would be envious. It’s a pretty good system,” Carmann said.

If the call is answered, each volunteer can follow a standard procedure of making small talk. Then they get into the hard-nosed, for-the-money talk.

Carmann said he has his own method, though. “With a few people, I asked them, ‘Have you seen the movie Jerry Maguire? Well, do you remember the line ‘Show me the money?’ That’s what I’m doing tonight,” Carmann said.

Few people, however, understood the joke, so Carmann stopped using it.

“I figured maybe they would be so confused by it they would give me $200,” Carmann joked.

He said he usually talks to his contacts about classes he has in common with them or about the football and basketball teams, and then eases into the big question and asks them for a donation. “I’m not very good at this,” Carmann admitted. “Maybe with time I’ll get more obstinate about it.”

Callers initially request $200, a pledge that would gain seniors membership in the Land Grant Guild.

The guild is a lifetime donor organization started this year which provides benefits for alumni who continue to give money to ISU each year after their graduation.

If seniors say they can’t afford $200, Carmann asks for $100, $50 and then $25.

“It’s a way for seniors to say that Iowa State is as important to them as the first day they stepped on campus,” he said.

Carmann said callers can even choose whom they want to talk to. “If you get an ex-girlfriend or someone else you don’t want to talk to, you just skip them,” he said.

This stage of calling will continue for another week, with other sessions later this year targeting August and December graduates. The callers are rewarded for their time with Iowa State mugs, pins, decals and keychains donated by the athletic department, but after an hour of calling, one caller wanted something else.

“Isn’t there supposed to be food for us?” asked Kyle DeVries, a senior in journalism.

DeVries has had experience in telemarketing with a previous fund-raiser for the ISU Foundation, which also uses the automated system in the Durham lab.