Alexander J. Leary '01, lead marketing representative for VarsityBooks.com on campus, acknowledged the stringency of the policies, but says that such policies are not practical given the competition for students' dollars.

"Their policy isn't really a policy that is upheld," Leary said. "I just went along with the way other people market here."

Bigwords.com has the same advertising policy as VarsityBooks.com.

"[Student representatives] check and follow [school] guidelines, but we work with the honor system" explains Iesa Figueroa, manager of marketing communications for Bigwords.com. "We do pass out our stuff in a very guerilla manner."

It seems to have paid off. According to Figueroa, Harvard is among the top five users of the Bigwords site.

For student-run companies University policy has been a more difficult obstacle.

"School rules have definitely been a huge limitation for us," writes Matthew C. Ebbel '01, co-founder of Collegebeans.com, in an e-mail message.

Collegebeans.com is a web site for college students, featuring a search engine for books and a used book marketplace.