Student Union
Banks Piggyback on Student ID Cards for a Fee
This story was originally published in VOA’s Learning English.
Many college and universities are adding banking functions, like that of a debit or credit card, to student identification cards and charging students fees and interest for the use.
Student IDs are typically used to enter campus buildings, access online sites and check out library books. But some schools have entered into financial agreements with banks so students can link their ID cards to private banking accounts. The convenience allows students to pay for food, school supplies and other expenses on campus.
But new research suggests these card programs put some students at risk of paying high banking fees.
Kaitlyn Vitez is the higher education campaign director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a nonprofit organization focused on protecting individuals’ financial interests. U.S. PIRG has looked into agreements between schools and banks for several years, she said.
In April, PIRG found that students with campus debit cards paid more than $24 million in fees. Some students paid an extra fee to use an ATM machine to withdraw money that wasn’t in their banking network. Or, they paid penalty fees for overdrawing bank accounts. Many international students faced fees for using the cards for purchases outside the U.S.
Any large fee can create unexpected problems for students, Vitez says. And, she argues, banks do not make those fees clear. Additionally, some banks pay colleges and universities to advertise their debit card programs on campus. The advertising might appear as official school programming, she says, and students may feel pushed to opening accounts.
PIRG also found that students at schools that derived revenue from banks paid up to 2.3 times more in fees than students at schools without those paid agreements. Vitez pointed to Wells Fargo Bank, which earned nearly $11.3 million in fee payments from students at 24 schools where it has paid agreements.
“When schools are setting their students up for … lifelong relationships with Wells Fargo, does that set students up for success?” Vitez asked. “I would say, no.”
What do schools say?
At Texas State University, students paid more than $1 million in fees last contract year. Students at Florida International University paid more than $1.3 million. And at Virginia Commonwealth University, students paid more than $500,000. All three schools declined to comment to VOA.
U.S. Bank collected nearly $300,000 in fees from its 36 partner colleges and universities last year. SunTrust Bank earned more than $1 million from one school alone: Florida State University, where 93% of students have accounts.
On the other hand, PNC Bank was able to earn $1.3 million in fees while keeping its average fee payments per student to nearly a third of what others charge. In an email, PNC representatives said the amount the company pays the schools is “never directly tied to the amount of fees paid by student account holders.”
The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) started its paid agreement for a campus debit card program with Wells Fargo in 2005. Last contract year, UNR students paid more than $700,000 in fees. The bank paid the school about $100,000.
More than 9,000 students have campus debit cards at UNR, indicating that the program works well, said Penny Leathley, UNR’s campus card manager.
“To me, that’s a good program,” Leathley said. “That shows that many parents and their students want to be involved in it.”
All banks have fees, she said, and students have the option to join the campus debit card program offered by Wells Fargo.
Tanya Ladha, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit consumer support group, said excess fees are not all the result of irresponsible use of the banking products. She said some students don’t have enough information about the products.
Students can give their parents access to their accounts, and Wells Fargo Bank offers lessons on financial responsibility.
But Ladha said some parents lack financial literacy, and most high school students lack financial education. As a result, a number of students know little or depend on what the banks tell them.
What do banks say?
In April, Wells Fargo announced changes to its campus debit cards: Account holders may overdraft their accounts without a penalty fee once a month, and students may withdraw money from another bank’s ATM up to four times a month.
“We’re proud of the fact that 4 out of 5 students that join us through the campus card program stay with us after they leave school,” Wells Fargo representative Jim Seitz said. “We maintain that relationship by providing high-quality service and great customer experiences.”
But Vitez, of U.S. PIRG, argues that the best solution is for the government to limit paid agreements between banks and schools, and ban aggressive advertising of debit cards on campus.
“All this information at the Department of Education’s fingertips that they’re not looking into, and there’s real harm being done to students,” she said.
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Professional athletes such as LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry have taken high-profile stances on hot-button topics and political campaigns in recent years, but college athletes are far less outspoken — even if money is available, according to experts in the NIL field. Being outwardly political can reflect on their school or endanger potential endorsement deals from brands that don't want controversy. It can certainly establish a public image for an athlete — for better or for worse — or lead to tensions with teammates and coaches who might not feel the same way.
There are examples of political activism by college athletes: A Texas Tech kicker revealed his support for former President Donald Trump on a shirt under his uniform at a game last week and a handful of Nebraska athletes a few days ago teamed up in a campaign ad against an abortion measure on the Tuesday's ballot.
Still, such steps are considered rare.
"It can be viewed as risky and there may be people telling them just don't even take that chance because they haven't made it yet," said Lauren Walsh, who started a sports branding agency 15 years ago. She said there is often too much to lose for themselves, their handlers and in some cases, their families.
"And these individuals still have to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives, even those that do end up getting drafted," she added.
College coaches are not always as reticent. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has used social media to make it clear he does not support Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in next week's presidential election. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy once caused a stir with a star player for wearing a shirt promoting a far-right news outlet.
Blake Lawrence, co-founder of the NIL platform Opendorse, noted that this is the first presidential election in the NIL era, which began in July 2021. He said athletes are flocking to opportunities to help increase voter turnout in the 18-to-24 age demographic, adding that one of his company's partners has had 86 athletes post social media messages encouraging turnout through the first half of the week.
He said athletes are shying away from endorsing specific candidates or causes that are considered partisan.
"Student-athletes are, for the most part, still developing their confidence in endorsing any type of product or service," he said. "So if they are hesitant to put their weight behind supporting a local restaurant or an e-commerce product, then they are certainly going to be hesitant to use their social channels in a political way."
Giving athletes a voice
Many college athletes have opted to focus on drumming up turnout in a non-partisan manner or simply using their platforms to take stands that are not directly political in nature. Some of those efforts can be found in battleground states.
A progressive group called NextGen America said it had signed players in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia to encourage voting among young people. Another organization, The Team, said it prepped 27 college athletes in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan to lead volunteer voter participation opportunities for students. The organization also said it got more than 625 coaches to sign a nonpartisan pledge to get their athletes registered to vote.
The Team's executive director is Joe Kennedy, a former coach who coordinated championship visits and other sporting events at the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. In early October, it hosted a Zoom event during which panelists such as NCAA President Charlie Baker and WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Natasha Cloud gave college athletes advice about using their platforms on campus.
In its early days, The Team seized upon momentum from the record turnout seen in the 2020 election. The NCAA that year said Division I athletes could have Election Day off from practice and play to vote. Lisa Kay Solomon, founder of the All Vote No Play campaign, said even if the athletes don't immediately take stands on controversial issues, it's important for them to learn how.
"It is a lot to ask our young people to feel capable and confident on skills they've never had a chance to practice," Solomon said. "We have to model what it means to practice taking risks, practice standing up for yourself, practice pausing to think about what are the values that you care about — not what social media is feeding into your brain, but what do you care about and how do you express that? And how do you do it in a way that honors the kind of future that you want to be a part of?"
Shut up and play?
Two years ago, Tennessee-Martin quarterback Dresser Winn said he would support a candidate in a local district attorney general race in what experts said was very likely the first political NIL deal by a college athlete.
There have been very few since.
The public criticism and fallout for athletes who speak out on politics or social issue can be sharp. Kaepernick, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, hasn't played in an NFL game since January 2017, not long after he began kneeling during the national anthem at games.
Meskers, the Montana sprinter, said political endorsements through NIL deals could create problems for athletes and their schools.
"I just think that NIL is going to run into a lot of trouble and a lot of struggles if they continue to let athletes do political endorsements," she said. "I just think it's messy. But I stand by NIL as a whole. I think it's really hard as a student athlete to create a financial income and support yourself."
Walsh said it's easier for wealthy and veteran stars like James and Ogwumike to take stands. James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, started More Than a Vote — an organization with a mission to "educate, energize and protect Black voters" — in 2020. He has passed the leadership to Ogwumike, who just finished her 13th year in the WNBA and also is the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association. More than a Vote is focused on women's rights and reproductive freedom this year.
"They have very established brands," Walsh said. "They know who they are and they know what their political stance is. They know that they have a really strong following that -- there's always going to be haters, but they're also always going to have that strong following of people who listen to everything that they have to say."
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor at Emory University who teaches African American politics, also said it is rare that a college athlete would make a significant impact with a political stand simply because they tend to have a more regional platform than national. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Eminem are better at increasing turnout than championing candidates.
"They are certainly very beneficial in helping to drive up turnout among their fans," Gillespie said. "The data is less conclusive about whether or not they're persuasive – are they the ones who are going to persuade you to vote for a particular candidate?"
Athletes as influencers
Still, campaigns know young voters are critical this election cycle, and athletes offer an effective and familiar voice to reach them.
Political and social topics are not often broached, but this week six Nebraska athletes — five softball players and a volleyball player — appeared in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women and Children involving two initiatives about abortion laws on Tuesday's ballot.
The female athletes backed Initiative 434, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions. Star softball player Jordy Bahl said on social media that the athletes were not paid.
A University of Montana spokesperson said two athletes initially agreed to take part in the NIL deal backing Tester. The school said one withdrew and the other declined to be interviewed.
For Meskers, deciding against the offer boiled down to Tester twice voting against proposals to bar federal funds from going to schools that allow transgender athletes to play women's sports, a prominent GOP campaign topic. Tester's campaign said the proposals were amendments to government spending packages, and he didn't want to play a role in derailing them as government shutdowns loomed.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," a Tester spokesperson said. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
Meskers said she believes using influence as college athletes is good and she is in favor of NIL. She just doesn't think the two should mix specifically for supporting candidates.
"I think especially as student athletes, we do have such a big voice and we do have a platform to use," she said. "So I think if you're encouraging people to do their civic duties and get up and go (vote), I think that's a great thing."
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