For the last three years, Yale University has been selling access to its alumni, staff, sports fans and potentially students.
According to the Connecticut Post, the school signed a seven-year contract with Chase Bank in 2007 to help market its credit cards.
The contract is officially called an affinity agreement. They were allowed to be kept secret until the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act went into effect in February 2010.
Under Yale's agreement, the university must give Chase lists and contact information for Yale members. Those on the list must be 18 years or older and Yale has the right to exclude students. Chase Bank tells the Post that it does not market to students on or near college campuses.
The university gets annual payments under the agreement, plus $3 for every new account and $100 for new accounts gotten through a specific direct marketing campaign.
The University of Connecticut's Alumni Association also offers a card to its alumni through Bank of America. A UConn spokesman notes the alumni association is a completely separate nonprofit entity.
The Huffington Post Investigative Fund reviewed 17 of these contracts and found some universities targeted not just alumni, but students. Some contracts granted the universities bonuses when cardholders carried balances. Many granted the card-marketing firms special access to campus events.
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Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa, told the Huffington Post, that the fact that schools are getting paid for students to rack up debt is a disgrace.
College seniors graduated in 2008 with average credit card debt of more than $4,100, up from $2,900 four years earlier, according to data compiled by student lending company Sallie Mae.
