Music Television recently unveiled a new network called mtvU, a media specifically targeted to the college lifestyle. MTV bought the College Television Network in October 2002, and kicked off mtvU’s Caffeine Machine Tour Jan. 20 at St. Louis University.

MTV created the network as an opportunity to speak to college kids, mtvU general manager Stephen Friedman said in a national teleconference Wednesday.

“MTV had always wanted to do a channel just for college kids, because while MTV certainly appeals to them, you guys are at an amazing moment in your life right now when everything is different,” he said. “When MTV bought [the network], we realized there was a huge opportunity to make it a very different kind of channel.”

Friedman said MTV launched the channel as an opportunity to do something unique and take an active stance in students’ lifestyles.

“We suddenly realized that online and on-campus communications were just as important as on-air, and we really want to be a resource as well as an entertainment place for this audience.”

The network will offer music programming, news, student-life features and college events. In addition, the network will cover such topics as student loans, finding cheap eats and the future job market.

In addition, mtvU will offer several contests to subscribing campuses, such as the “You Want It, You Got It” Contest, which will allow winners to choose their prize of a car with free gas, a “tricked out” dorm room and a year of free tuition. Another contest will award a spring-break vacation for a student and nine friends to party at MTV Spring Break.

Likewise, the “Stand In” Contest offers students a chance to convince mtvU that a cultural icon should be a guest professor at their institution. The student winners would then be surprised by the icon guest-lecturing for the day.

“We knew there are a lot of cultural icons that you’d never expect to be professors but are teaching some amazing stuff,” Freidman said during the teleconference. “We’re gonna say to you guys, ‘Make your case why this icon should come and teach your class.'”

The most recent professor icons were civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson, who lectured about racism and law and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt lecturing on literature. The next guest professor mtvU will offer is music icon Marilyn Manson, who will lecture on music, marketing and cultural studies.

One program featured on mtvU will be “The Cut,” a program showcasing up-and-coming music talent on the college scene. The show will feature artists’ videos and access to free video and music downloads on mtvU.com.

“Music is the heart of the channel, and the new initiative we’re launching called ‘The Cut’ reflects that,” Friedman said.

The first artists featured on “The Cut” will include Dizzie Rascal, Howie Day, Atmosphere and Joss Stone.

David French, MTV Networks communications representative, said the re-vamped network will be funded through advertising on the network such as commercials. He urged students to take an active role in the new network by contacting them about upcoming campus events, even if their institution does not subscribe to the service.

mtvU VJ George Oliphant said he paid a visit to the University of Wisconsin-Madison last fall and hopes to travel back soon.

“I came to University of Wisconsin-Madison, went out on State Street and had a really good time,” he said. “I would love to come back; it’s a really fun school. Don’t you worry, we’ll definitely make it out to Madison again.”

Oliphant said mtvU is currently focusing on other schools outside the Big Ten, but it will not be long before mtvU makes another trip to campus.