Microsoft funds many USG events

Microsoft’s continued support of Undergraduate Student Government events, including Lawnparties, the Silent Disco and the recent Idea Farm, is part of a student engagement model the company is piloting at Princeton for future education programs at U.S. educational institutions. The pilot program seeks to complement traditional advertising with direct student engagement at social events.

Although Microsoft has so far partnered most visibly with the USG, the company is looking to expand the program by cooperating with other University student life organizations in addition to supporting this spring’s Lawnparties.

The link between Microsoft and the USG was first established in the months preceding last September’s Lawnparties when Microsoft directly contacted the USG Social Committee through the Lawnparties website, former USG social chair Benny Wagstaff ’14 said.

Although Wagstaff noted that many other organizations also contacted the USG about supporting Lawnparties, Microsoft is the first and only company to sponsor the event.

“They have Princeton alumni who work at Microsoft that recognized [Lawnparties], and I think that’s where it all began,” he explained.

Wagstaff worked primarily with Microsoft’s Dave Zamborsky, an academic account manager for higher education and K-12. In this position, Zamborsky oversees the company’s cooperation with educational institutions in New Jersey and the surrounding region.

“[The social events] have been sponsored with the idea that there is value added with the students in regards to not just putting an ad in the newspaper but actually levering our technology to show the value of what our technology can do,” Zamborsky said.

Microsoft is approaching this goal with traditional marketing campaigns as well as student engagement efforts during social events. For example, Tiger Magazine ran full-page Microsoft advertisements on the back and inside front covers of its February issue.

Tiger Magazine president Andrew Sondern ’15 declined to comment on the advertisements.

According to Zamborsky, the University was chosen for the pilot program because of its size and the extent of student involvement on campus, which are characteristic of the other nearby schools that are also testing this program.

Zamborsky declined to identify other universities where Microsoft has been piloting its student engagement program, but noted these included some Ivy League schools.

“I couldn’t have the same engagement model at the College of Philadelphia,” Zamborsky said. “But you have other typical liberal arts, four-year undergraduate education institutions that this model will work in and will scale to.”

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As part of the program, Microsoft is currently trying to inform University students about divisions in the company besides Windows and Office. Zamborsky said that students are not aware of licensed software products besides Windows and Office that are available to them.

“That’s a driving force of my responsibility – to make sure students understand what resources are available for them as part of what the University licenses,” Zamborsky said.

Microsoft’s sponsorship of the USG has totaled more than $45,000 since September and also included logistical support.

The company contributed $20,000 to Fall Lawnparties and held product demos at Campus Club during the event. In January, it contributed $22,500 to the Silent Disco and was involved in the setup of the space. Most recently, Microsoft sponsored this past weekend’s Princeton Idea Farm, with over $4,000 in prizes. The entrepreneurial competition gave the winner the opportunity for Microsoft to develop the idea into a Windows Store App.

In addition, the company also provided speakers for lectures that occurred throughout the weekend. The lectures of the weekend included a talk given by Savraj Singh ’03, who started his own company through the Y Combinator startup program after studying at Princeton and working at Microsoft. Wagstaff noted that Singh was chosen as a speaker because of his experience in entrepreneurship and not because of his position at Microsoft.

Thinking about the future, Zamborsky said that plans to partner with the USG for spring Lawnparties have “not been solidified yet,” but he believes that Microsoft will have a role.

“We are definitely looking at ways that we can partner with not just the USG but with different organizations on campus that we can leverage our technology to make their experience better,” Zamborsky said.

Current social chair Carla Javier ’15 said that as of now, the USG does not have definite plans to work with other outside organizations.

“Right now, the Social Committee is open to reaching out to Microsoft and seeing what support they can give us or what kind of support we can give them, but at the moment, we don’t really have any concrete plans,” Javier said.

Javier is also a news writer for The Daily Princetonian.