Topeka — Five of six state university alumni associations, including Kansas University's, have refused to tell state lawmakers how much they make from contracts with banks for credit card services.
The refusal angered state Rep. Rocky Nichols, a Topeka Democrat, who had earlier filed legislation aimed at making it more difficult for credit card companies to solicit college students.
In considering the legislation, Nichols and other lawmakers asked the alumni groups how much they were paid by banks for supplying the banks with names and addresses of alumni and students for marketing purposes.
A memorandum from the Kansas Board of Regents provided some details about the agreements, but no figures on how much the contracts are worth. Except, that is, for the Emporia State Alumni Assn., which receives $250,000 over six years, according to the memo.
Nichols said that instead of trying to get revenge by pushing his bill through the Legislature, all the parties have agreed to form a group that will study the issue after the legislative session is over.
"We're going to talk through this issue over the summer and find some practical solutions," Nichols said.
Nichols' proposal would have prohibited credit card companies from soliciting on campus, and would have prohibited selling or providing lists of addresses of students and college employees to credit card companies.
Nichols said too many students are getting in financial trouble by running up credit card debt.
The Kansas University Alumni Association has a 12-year contract with Intrust Bank of Wichita, which issues KU credit cards. The association receives a royalty but declines to say how much.
Nichols said he doesn't understand what the big secret is. Revealing the amount of the contract with the Kansas University Alumni Association and others might make the contracts more competitive, he said.
The KU association referred questions about the development to an employee who was not available Wednesday.
The regents memo also said that Kansas University rents space to credit card issuers in the Kansas Union and that the KU Bookstore purchases shopping bags for its customers on a subsidized basis in exchange for advertising inserts placed in the bags. These two activities amounted to about $23,000 for the last fiscal year, the memo stated.
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