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Vice President of Finance Doug Anderson explained that, “this sort of thing is not unusual for any college.”

Anderson said that the university authorized the banking firm MBNA to use the university seal. Anderson also said that allowing the company to solicit students for the credit card brings important financial benefits back to the university.

According to Anderson, these benefits to the university are twofold.

“The first is the added showing of pride by university students and alumni when using the card and promoting the university’s name all over, and second, the royalty that the bank pays to the university for use of the seal and name goes towards student and alumni program funding.”

On the bottom of the application was a post script that backed up Anderson’s statement. It said, “Bank of America, the issuer of this card, helps support the Hamline University with every account opened, and for every purchase made with the card-all at no additional cost.”

The credit card application also stressed the “convenience of being able to purchase your supplies for classes without carrying a lot of cash.” The form goes on to list its immediate benefits and availability of electronic bill payment service.

Like many staff and faculty who declined to be named, Anderson says he was at first unaware that the distribution of the applications was even taking place at the university.

“At first I was concerned, because the distributor is Bank of America, and our contract was with MBNA. But after checking into it, I found that MBNA was bought out by Bank of America and they acquired the rights to use the university seal and name when they bought out MBNA,” Anderson said.

Many students, who also declined to be named, said they were opposed to getting such mail. Despite this, Anderson said few students or alumni have the card.