Colleges And Credit Card Companies

Via Kevin Carey, Jonathan Glazer exposes a really outrageous story for The New York Times about the covert relationships between colleges and credit card companies:

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.

As you’ll see if you read the whole thing, Michigan State is far from the only school doing this. And it’s wildly inappropriate. Colleges and universities are supposed to be serving the interests of their students and the public and encouraging young people to take on credit card debt does neither. What’ll be next — university administrators forming joint partnerships with campus drug dealers? If they stick to pot, it might do less harm.