When school children need to raise money for a field trip, they might sponsor a bake sale or, better yet, a raffle.

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So when officials at Orange County Community College, in New York, heard students clamoring for a wireless Internet network, they thought: Why not try the same strategy?

To help its cash-strapped technology office pay for some $200,000 of wireless-networking hardware, the college is running a raffle rather more ambitious than most grade-school fund raisers. For $5 apiece, entrants can buy chances to win a pricey custom-built motorcycle that the university bought from Orange County Choppers, a local company that has earned national renown for its starring role in the reality-television show American Chopper. (Motorcycles outfitted by the company typically run upwards of $50,000.)

The moneymaking strategy is, by college standards, a bit unusual, concedes James M. Dutcher, the college's associate vice president for information technology. "We had numerous meetings with the college's computer club on how to best go about getting funding for their top needs," he says, "and we came up with this as a way to get more money and let students have a direct say in how that money is spent."

The students also have a role in making their plan happen: A group of 50 computing aficionados and student leaders, many of whom campaigned hard for wireless access, are doing most of the legwork for the raffle.

With guidance from Mr. Dutcher, they have started selling tickets on the Web and around the campus. And they have secured some valuable marketing deals â€" like an arrangement with Frontier, a telecommunications company, that will enclose advertisements for the raffle with bills for more than a million of the company's customers.