UNLV official: Grades not on credit card list

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

Hundreds of parents whose children attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas receive credit card solicitations initiated by the school's alumni office, university officials said.

For five years the registrar's office has given UNLV's alumni relations a list of students and their parents, as well as alumni. Solicitations for MBNA credit cards are then sent out.

In exchange, UNLV receives a slice of the profits from new credit card purchases, said Fred Albrecht, the alumni office's vice president of university and community relations.

The arrangement raises about $100,000 a year for UNLV, and has some regents questioning whether the practice violates student privacy.

University officials had not previously acknowledged that parents also received credit card solicitations.

Although the credit card-bound lists include names and addresses, Albrecht adamantly denied that student grades are included. The admissions office has said that one list provided to the alumni office is based on the grade point average of a select group of Southern California students.

"Those are two separate lists," Albrecht said. "Those lists are used for two different purposes."

Albrecht said the alumni office each year markets a scholarship to Southern California students. The admissions office generates a list of all applicants with a 3.5 grade point average and higher, among other specific information.

"That would not be accurate to say that those people who are on the solicitation for scholarship (list) are forwarded to the credit card company," Albrecht said.

The list targeting undergraduate students for MBNA credit cards is supplied by the registrar's office, Albrecht said. According to the contract, the number of times credit card companies can contact students is limited.

"For what we provide to them, (MBNA) can only do one to two mailings and phone calls each year," UNLV spokesman Tom Flagg said.

But one mother says she is constantly bombarded with calls for her 19-year-old son, a sophomore at UNLV. She said MBNA telemarketers call for her husband as well, despite the fact he graduated from the school in 1982.

"It surprises me how often they call," Kim Small said. "In the month I get at least four to five calls for each of them (my son and husband). My phone number is unlisted, too."

The credit card solicitations occur at three other higher education institutions in the state, although each campus tailors its list to match different groups.

UNLV has several lists -- One is sent to a mailing house that markets to MBNA credit; another includes students applying for graduation and is marketed to an insurance company.

The University of Nevada, Reno Foundation obtains lists of alumni and student donors and then markets those names to MBNA credit, despite a standing policy by the university that forbids the release of personal information, other than name, to outside entities.

The Community College of Southern Nevada releases the names of new registrants to First USA credit.

Several members of the Board of Regents have spoken out against the practice, calling it wrong for institutions of higher learning to encourage indebtedness. The American Civil Liberties Union's national organization is also taking an interest in the issue, said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada ACLU.

"There is great concern about what is being done," Peck said. "Whatever the case may be about tailored lists, the deeper and disturbing issue remains the university is disclosing personal information without ... getting their permission," Peck said.

CCSN and UNLV place notices in class schedules apprising students of their rights. UNR officials did not respond today to questions regarding whether a notice appears in that school's schedules.