The UNM Faculty Senate voted Tuesday to approve a resolution that would regulate credit card vendors by creating a credit education program, as well as charging the companies a fee to market on campus.
Pam Olson, an associate professor of individual family community education, addressed the senate about the resolution. Olson is a member of a committee comprising faculty, staff and students who are concerned about the "increasingly aggressive" tactics by credit card solicitors on campus during the past decade.
She said that college administrators have become more concerned about the growing student credit debt due to credit card companies stationing themselves on campuses and enticing students to sign up for credit cards with "freebies," which range from T-shirts to candy.
According to the resolution, the N.M. Legislature in its 1999 session passed a memorial "requesting the state educational institutions to eliminate or curtail solicitations for credit cards."
The resolution, in response to the memorial, asks that UNM, the Associated Students of UNM, the Graduate and Professional Students Association and the Faculty Senate endorse three points: "that the University community shall develop, adopt and implement a comprehensive credit education program and marketing practice by assessing a fee for educational programming, restricting location of credit marketers and requiring marketers to display Fair Credit Act Information." ASUNM passed the resolution Oct. 16.
According to the senate resolution, "the amount of consumer debt accumulated by college students is reaching an all-time high" and "a national survey of 1,260 students across 15 campuses nationwide by the United States Public Interest Research Group found that, 'students who obtain credit cards at on-campus promotional tables carry larger balances and pay off their credit cards later than those who obtain cards elsewhere."
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The resolution also states that "students are forced to repay their credit card debt with student loan monies, appeals to family and friends, cutting back on course work to increase the amount of time at paid jobs or even dropping out of school."
Although several senators suggested a complete ban of credit card companies from campus, Olson maintained that the committee wants to use the companies as a "student-teaching tool."
She said that the fee to solicit on campus assessed to the credit card companies would go to the education program to inform students about credit and credit card debt. Olson added that the committee wanted to start small, so it could only charge a small fee - such as $100 a day, which would be used for things such as fliers and whiteboards - in correlation with the educational program.
"We would like a stronger statement," Olson said. "We just don't think we're going to get it."
She added that this is merely the committee's first step.
"We'll be back," Olson said.
