At the corner of South Stadium Drive past Tiger Stadium and around the bend in the road near the Design Building, a building with a small sign reading “Tiger Talk” is taped above double doors.Behind these doors is the University’s call center where student workers raise money for the LSU Foundation and individual colleges’ private funds.”Every penny that is raised here goes to the academic programs on campus,” said Quinn Rainwater, LSU Foundation funds director. “The money we raise for the Flagship fund … goes to where LSU needs it the most.”The student call center started in 2003, later than those at other Southeastern Conference schools, Rainwater said. The University wanted to open the center earlier but couldn’t get the resources, he said.Rainwater said Tiger Talk provides an annual fund campaign for the University and consults the different colleges on campus to raise money for their annual funds.Students make calls Monday through Thursday in the evening and on Sunday afternoon.”We still think we’re one of the best kept secrets on campus,” he said, explaining that not many students know about the job. About 75 students work the different shifts, Rainwater said. Students called a little more than 96,000 alumi last semester.But many students work at Tiger Talk for only a few weeks, Rainwater said.”It’s a hard job,” he said. “The burn-out rate is high.”Though most alumni are nice, the student workers commonly go a whole shift without getting donations and even experience frequent hang-ups, Rainwater said.But the atmosphere turns more exciting at night, when the phones are ringing and donations are coming in, he said. One student raised $325 on Thursday, and the students collectively received pledges for more than $5,500.”Last fiscal year, [Tiger Talk] actually raised $451,000 for LSU,” Rainwater said.Bayo Famoriyo is the current top caller for Tiger Talk, raising more than $70,000.Famoriyo, electrical engineering senior, said he walked into the building in summer 2005 looking for an on-campus job and was hired the next day.”The first couple weeks it was hard,” Famoriyo said. “I just got to the states, and the Louisiana southern drawl was really tough.”He said he couldn’t understand what the speaker on the other end of the line was saying, nor could the speaker understand him.On one occasion Famoriyo said he received a $10,000 donation from an alumnus, and the manager let everyone leave early for the night.”It was the best feeling in the world,” Famoriyo said.The student call center has experienced a drop in donations since November, Rainwater said.”The economy is having the biggest impact on us,” he said.But with news of the recent budget cuts, Rainwater said he’s hopeful alumni will use the opportunity to donate more for the University.Students called alums for the E. J. Ourso College of Business, last week, and this week workers will begin calling the College of Engineering and will continue down the list of colleges until all have been called, Rainwater said. “I think people are going to rally around us,” he said.  —-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]