When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other banking products.
“They did a good job,” Mr. Muneio, 21 and a junior at Michigan State, said of the tactic. “It was good advertising.”
Bank of America’s relationship with the university extends well beyond marketing at sports events. The bank has an $8.4 million, seven-year contract with Michigan State giving it access to students’ names and addresses and use of the university’s logo. The more students who take the banks’ credit cards, the more money the university gets. Under certain circumstances, Michigan State even stands to receive more money if students carry a balance on these cards.
Hundreds of colleges have contracts with lenders. But at a time of rising concern about student debt ”” and overall consumer debt ”” the arrangements have sounded alarm bells, and some student groups are starting to push back.
This is a wonderful example of what’s wrong in our society today. You have two institutions – an educational institution and a financial institution – both of whom are acting immorally in the pursuit of money. It is easier to understand the banks behavior as it is an organization set up to make money though there is no excuse for the immoral decision to make money by deliberately preying on the most vulnerable like college students and sub-prime loan candidates. This just reflects the basic lack of any moral or ethical standards on the part of the banks leadership. The situation with educational institutions is totally inexcusable and reflects the fact that students are viewed today primarily as as a source to make money. A schools first responsibility is to the well being of their students and to see that those they take in are protected & educated and not taken advantage of. Of course, the real blame falls on the religious institutions of today who have failed to teach moral and ethical standards for society to live by. The relativistic approach found in far too many churches has drastically weakened the concept of right and wrong and good and evil. The results are predictable and are well illustrated in this news story.
I agree wholeheartedly with tgs’ sentiments. There is just something very wrong and underhanded about the whole business.
“the real blame falls on the religious institutions of today who have failed to teach moral and ethical standards for society to live by. ”
Yes, to some extect. But too many don’t avail themselves of religious institutions, to gain the failer of the teaching. A state institution gaining is a real stinker. But once again, the responsibility remains with the home. Not teaching children that there really aren’t machines (ATMs) that just give money away, there really isn’t a piece of plastic that can buy every want, and that writing an amount on a piece of paper and signing it really isn’t of value,is wrong. From a very early age, children must be educated as to what backs up that ATM, plastic, and piece of paper…..Agree the education institutions, especially the government run ones, need to get out of the credit card business, but home education is still the answer…..if you are helping your family student, you have the right to tell them “no, you won’t apply for the card”. End of story.
In the case of Michigan State, my first thought is that the university has no right to sell personal information to another organization without first obtaining permission in writing. My second is to marvel at the immorality of the university receiving extra money depending upon the balances carried by its students. One hopes that some of the trustees will intervene to change the arrangement, or, at any rate, see that it is not renewed.
While I agree that the actions (or lack of protection) of students outside the classroom by both financial and educational institutions is immoral and unethical, it pales in comparison to what they are doing to them inside the classroom. The results can be seen in a new generation of sexually promiscuous, entitled, socialists. Yet year-by-year we allow it to continue.
I teach at a Texas state university. Each year, 20% of the freshmen will not return do to financial problems – usually credit card debt. It is a vicious cycle. The credit card companies bombard their mail and email with offers, they get in debt by charging Taco Bell and CDs, they get a job to pay the debt, their grades suffer, they lose their Pell and other scholarships, they work more…
Ironically, the college exacerbates this process – our ID cards are actually a Mastercard credit card; good, not only at the campus book store, the various food courts or for paid events, but good at Walmart, McDonald’s and The Gap. No wonder our ‘average’ student carries debt throughout their college experience.
do=due
I’d have to give myself a ‘B’ for that post.
As I tell my students, proof read.