Topeka ? After complaints raised by Intrust Bank, the Kansas Board of Regents has delayed action on a student request to restrict credit-card solicitation on university campuses.

The delay has angered some students and legislators, who say the solicitations prey on students and quickly sink them in debt.

“I’m just mad as hell,” said Ralph Tanner, R-Baldwin, chairman of the House education committee.

Regents members last week were considering a staff recommendation providing guidelines on restricting banks from soliciting students on campuses to apply for credit cards.

Wichita-based Intrust, the largest bank holding company in the state, told Regents it acted responsibly when soliciting students to apply for credit cards, and that the proposed restrictions would violate multimillion dollar contracts it has to sell at the state’s three biggest universities: Kansas University, Kansas State University and Wichita State University.

Intrust Bank senior vice president and general counsel Brian Sullivan said the restrictions, which include a three-week prohibition of soliciting on campus each semester, would infringe on the bank’s contracts that have been signed with the schools’ top officials, alumni associations and athletic corporations.

Sullivan said those contracts were worth $20 million. One Kansas State official said he feared restricting the contracts would prompt Intrust to sue the schools.

Ron Baldwin, vice chairman of Intrust, declined to speculate on what the bank would do, but added a legal challenge of any restriction on its contracts would be a possibility.

Justin Mills, a former KU student body president who has been pushing for the restrictions, said Intrust was engaging in scare tactics and “putting profits above the interests of students here at Kansas.”

He said the proposed restrictions were minimal compared with those in place at many colleges, some of which have banned credit-card solicitations altogether.

The regents appeared divided on the issue. Several members said they didn’t want to adopt a policy that would cause the universities to violate their contracts with the bank, while others said they felt the regents had a higher duty to protect students from falling into debt.

Under the proposal that was before the regents, each state university would have to adopt policies to prohibit solicitation of credit-card applications for a three-week period  one week before and two weeks after the first day of each semester.

Mills said that would give students, especially new ones, time to adjust to new college lives before being beset by marketing efforts from banks to use their credit cards.

In addition, the policy would require that, along with material soliciting credit-card applications, there be information provided to students on the responsible use of credit cards and the risks of credit.

And each institution would have to include educational material on credit-card use in student orientation programs and materials.

The regents decided to send the issue to a committee of university presidents for review. The matter probably won’t come before them again until this fall.

The delay angered Tanner, who said he had stopped pushing for legislation to restrict credit-card solicitations after regents officials promised they would put the restrictions in place.

“If they think they have seen some bad days from the Legislature, they can wake up and find a new day has dawned,” Tanner said.

He also criticized Intrust Bank, and warned that he may propose legislation in the 2003 legislative session that would provide solicitation restrictions aimed at the bank.

But Intrust’s Baldwin said the bank simply wanted to enjoy the rights of its contracts, which are 12-year deals that have eight years remaining.

“We struck competitive deals with the three major universities that are very beneficial contracts with alumni associations and the universities and athletic departments,” he said. “They signed a contract. You make commitments, you stick with it.”