I Am in Your Debt...

...making money off your overspending.

At least, I am if I'm any one of several colleges or universities who have deals with banks about credit cards.

According to the New York Times story, quite a few colleges have contracts with banks that allow them to put the college logo on a card and have exclusive access to alumni lists for marketing purposes. The college gets a large chunk of cash in the deal, and depending on the details, may get more money if cardholders carry balances on the card than if they pay them off.

Even those colleges that don't give their current student mailing lists to the banks usually allow them to set up booths at football games, student info fairs and the like, and to offer T-shirts and whatnot as an incentive to fill out an application. Pick up a free shirt, fill out a form and get a nice piece of plastic credit poison. Borrow on it and add to the enormous debt you'll already owe the school for the privilege of wandering its halls and hills for four years, every now and again finding someone who'd like to teach you something instead of slapping a B on your transcript so he or she can get on with the real faculty moneymaker, research.

A lot of justified distaste exists in the university with students who see themselves as consumers, concerned more with buying a product -- a diploma that will gain them access to the job market -- than with education. But on the other hand, it probably seems fair to the students, since more and more universities look upon them as a product to be consumed for cash.

(H/T University Diaries)