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http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/01/29/ke012903s357881.htm
Offensive T-shirt stirs anger at U of L
Credit card solicitors banned after incident
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mark Pitsch
mpitsch@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
The University of Louisville ordered an immediate campus ban on credit card solicitors after two of them offered students a promotional T-shirt that school officials said was ''racially and sexually offensive.''
The chairman of Bank One, which issues the credit cards and has a $1.9 million contract with U of L for exclusive access to its students and alumni, said he was ''outraged'' and fired the firm handling its card promotions on campus.
The T-shirt, printed with a list of ''10 Reasons Why a Beer is Better than a Black Man'' and illustrated with caricatures of a black couple, was one of the items the two offered students during a campus visit Thursday in exchange for applying for the credit card.
U of L President Jim Ramsey announced the solicitation ban in an email to students, staff and faculty on Friday. He said the university would review its policies allowing other items to be marketed to students.
''What happened is simply not acceptable on our campus or in any community, and we must do everything we can to make sure it does not happen again,'' Ramsey said in the email message.
The incident marks the second racial embarrassment for the school in a little more than a year. Some students and faculty complained about U of L's response to an October 2001 off-campus Halloween party at which four white fraternity members wore black face paint.
But students and faculty praised the university's response to the T-shirt giveaway.
''They really did what has been asked by black students,'' said James Sye, a senior who is black. ''It's letting us know they really care about our well-being.''
Stacy Brooks, a graduate student who is black, said he questioned the two workers about the shirts and later was joined by two other students, Sye and a white woman.
Brooks said the university's response was ''100 percent better'' than its handling of the Halloween party, ''from the immediate response to the president not only saying something very symbolic but also doing something.''
On Monday, Bank One fired the Philadelphia company it had hired to promote its U of L-affiliated credit card on campus. The company, FrontLine Event Marketing, claims on its Web site that it is ''the largest marketer of credit cards to college students in the United States'' and that company representatives have visited 1,600 four-year and 1,200 two-year schools.
''I'm outraged. To be embarrassed like this is disgraceful,'' Jamie Dimon, chairman of Chicago-based Bank One, said yesterday.
Dimon said the T-shirts were offered without the bank's permission, and the company is considering legal action. The T-shirts included the Bank One logo.
The caricatures on the shirt show a black woman drinking a beer with a black man standing in the background. Among the ''10 Reasons'' cited were: ''A beer can't get you pregnant'' and ''A beer doesn't yell at your kids.'' A couple of other reasons were sexually suggestive.
Ed Solomon, president of FrontLine, called the promotion ''absolutely repugnant.'' He said the two workers, from Indianapolis, weren't properly trained by their Indianapolis-based supervisor, Connie Whitlock, and should not have been trying to market the credit cards.
Solomon said Whitlock, hired under contract by FrontLine to oversee several credit card marketing efforts, has had her contract terminated. Solomon said he has been unable to reach the two workers who went to U of L.
Whitlock, reached last night, said: ''I can't talk right now. I'm really, really busy.''
On Thursday, the two credit card workers staffed a table in the university's student center and urged students to apply for a Bank One card. The card offers several designs, including one that features the familiar red, teeth-clenching U of L cardinal. They offered a gift for signing up, and one was the Tshirt.
The two sought and received permission from the director of the student activities center to set up, in accordance with U of L policy, but did not show the director the T-shirts, said Rae Goldsmith, a university spokeswoman.
Giveaway material is not typically shown to campus officials, she said.
Late Thursday afternoon, a few students confronted the solicitors about the T-shirts and a disagreement ensued, Goldsmith said. Campus police and administrators from the office of student life responded, viewed the T-shirts and escorted the workers off campus, she said.
Brooks, 28, a graduate student in Pan-African Studies, said he tried to find out why the two were offering the T-shirts and why they didn't find them offensive. After being joined by Sye, Brooks said one of the workers called security because she thought the two were interfering with their pitch to students.
''They were basically just blowing me off and telling me I'm silly for finding it offensive,'' said Brooks, who said he called university administrators to the scene.
Sye, 22, said the other worker was acting in a threatening manner toward him and the white student who looked at the T-shirt. ''He kept saying, 'You don't want to see me get mad,' '' Sye said.
Brooks said he was more troubled by the caricatures than the list, which he said could have been used to denigrate men of other races.
Sye said: ''I didn't want to see this. There are a lot bigger problems, but it's a matter of dignity and respect for other people.''
Bank One officials met with Ramsey's diversity advisory council, an informal group of advisers, on Friday morning. Later that day, Ramsey sent out the e-mail, saying the bank would write a letter to U of L explaining the incident; meet with students to answer questions, probably next week; and work with U of L on diversity initiatives in the future.
Ramsey also announced the ban on credit card solicitations.
Nancy Norris, vice president for regional media relations at Bank One, said the T-shirts were not on a list of approved giveaway items, and the bank was not aware of the Tshirt offer.
She also said Bank One had approved a marketing event at the U of L men's basketball game Wednesday in Freedom Hall but did not know the workers were at U of L on Thursday.
Solomon, of FrontLine, said Whitlock sent the two to campus Thursday, although they weren't officially scheduled to be there that day.
Norris said Bank One pays about 200 colleges across the country -- including the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University -- for exclusive access to alumni and students. She wouldn't disclose how much money Bank One might lose by canceling its deal with FrontLine.
Bank One's five-year contract with U of L, worth $1.9 million, expires Friday, Goldsmith said. She said the university is seeking bids for a new contract that would allow alumni to be solicited but would stop on-campus solicitations.
The U of L incident comes as credit card solicitations on campus have been criticized around the country.
In 1998, 67 percent of undergraduates had at least one credit card. Three years later 83 percent did, according to a study by Nellie Mae, which provides federally and privately funded student loans. The study said the proportion of students with four or more credit cards increased from 27 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2001.
The average credit card debt of college students in 1999-2000 was $3,066, according to the U.S. Education Department.
''There's a growing epidemic, not only in Kentucky, but across the country, in students mounting up credit card debt without having any income stream to pay for it,'' said Kentucky Treasurer Jonathan Miller, who has testified before Congress on the issue.
Miller said giveaways to entice students to apply for credit cards ''trivialize the responsibilities of credit card use.''
Ashley Helm, 20, a U of L junior, said she was glad about the solicitation ban. ''They should have done it my freshman year,'' said Helm, who added that her credit card debt tops $2,500 and that she signed up for one just to get a free T-shirt.
''When they said you were approved for $1,500, $2,000, I needed it,'' she said. ''You find out the repercussions once those bills start rolling in.''
State Reps. Susan Westrom, DLexington, and Mike Cherry, DPrinceton, are sponsoring a bill to ban the use of gifts to get students to sign up for credit cards, to require colleges to provide credit card and debt education sessions during registration and develop a credit card marketing policy, and to require the Council on Postsecondary Education to regulate credit card marketing on college campuses.
House Speaker Jody Richards, DBowling Green, has introduced a similar bill.
Norris said Bank One is more interested in marketing its universityaffiliated credit cards to alumni than students.
But Robert Manning, an economist at the Rochester Institute of Technology who has studied student credit card debt, said companies target college and even high school students to sign up for cards.
Following the Halloween party incident involving four Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity members, some students thought U of L administrators responded too slowly to condemn what happened.
Brenda Hart, director of student affairs at the Speed School of Engineering, said the university's response to the T-shirt matter was much faster.
''People were shocked when they learned this happened, and I do think the response the university made was appropriate and immediate,'' she said.
Goldsmith said U of L ''learned some things'' from the Halloween Party incident. ''We've always tried to respond quickly, and what we've learned is we have to communicate as quickly as we respond.''
Offensive T-shirt stirs anger at U of L
Credit card solicitors banned after incident
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mark Pitsch
mpitsch@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
The University of Louisville ordered an immediate campus ban on credit card solicitors after two of them offered students a promotional T-shirt that school officials said was ''racially and sexually offensive.''
The chairman of Bank One, which issues the credit cards and has a $1.9 million contract with U of L for exclusive access to its students and alumni, said he was ''outraged'' and fired the firm handling its card promotions on campus.
The T-shirt, printed with a list of ''10 Reasons Why a Beer is Better than a Black Man'' and illustrated with caricatures of a black couple, was one of the items the two offered students during a campus visit Thursday in exchange for applying for the credit card.
U of L President Jim Ramsey announced the solicitation ban in an email to students, staff and faculty on Friday. He said the university would review its policies allowing other items to be marketed to students.
''What happened is simply not acceptable on our campus or in any community, and we must do everything we can to make sure it does not happen again,'' Ramsey said in the email message.
The incident marks the second racial embarrassment for the school in a little more than a year. Some students and faculty complained about U of L's response to an October 2001 off-campus Halloween party at which four white fraternity members wore black face paint.
But students and faculty praised the university's response to the T-shirt giveaway.
''They really did what has been asked by black students,'' said James Sye, a senior who is black. ''It's letting us know they really care about our well-being.''
Stacy Brooks, a graduate student who is black, said he questioned the two workers about the shirts and later was joined by two other students, Sye and a white woman.
Brooks said the university's response was ''100 percent better'' than its handling of the Halloween party, ''from the immediate response to the president not only saying something very symbolic but also doing something.''
On Monday, Bank One fired the Philadelphia company it had hired to promote its U of L-affiliated credit card on campus. The company, FrontLine Event Marketing, claims on its Web site that it is ''the largest marketer of credit cards to college students in the United States'' and that company representatives have visited 1,600 four-year and 1,200 two-year schools.
''I'm outraged. To be embarrassed like this is disgraceful,'' Jamie Dimon, chairman of Chicago-based Bank One, said yesterday.
Dimon said the T-shirts were offered without the bank's permission, and the company is considering legal action. The T-shirts included the Bank One logo.
The caricatures on the shirt show a black woman drinking a beer with a black man standing in the background. Among the ''10 Reasons'' cited were: ''A beer can't get you pregnant'' and ''A beer doesn't yell at your kids.'' A couple of other reasons were sexually suggestive.
Ed Solomon, president of FrontLine, called the promotion ''absolutely repugnant.'' He said the two workers, from Indianapolis, weren't properly trained by their Indianapolis-based supervisor, Connie Whitlock, and should not have been trying to market the credit cards.
Solomon said Whitlock, hired under contract by FrontLine to oversee several credit card marketing efforts, has had her contract terminated. Solomon said he has been unable to reach the two workers who went to U of L.
Whitlock, reached last night, said: ''I can't talk right now. I'm really, really busy.''
On Thursday, the two credit card workers staffed a table in the university's student center and urged students to apply for a Bank One card. The card offers several designs, including one that features the familiar red, teeth-clenching U of L cardinal. They offered a gift for signing up, and one was the Tshirt.
The two sought and received permission from the director of the student activities center to set up, in accordance with U of L policy, but did not show the director the T-shirts, said Rae Goldsmith, a university spokeswoman.
Giveaway material is not typically shown to campus officials, she said.
Late Thursday afternoon, a few students confronted the solicitors about the T-shirts and a disagreement ensued, Goldsmith said. Campus police and administrators from the office of student life responded, viewed the T-shirts and escorted the workers off campus, she said.
Brooks, 28, a graduate student in Pan-African Studies, said he tried to find out why the two were offering the T-shirts and why they didn't find them offensive. After being joined by Sye, Brooks said one of the workers called security because she thought the two were interfering with their pitch to students.
''They were basically just blowing me off and telling me I'm silly for finding it offensive,'' said Brooks, who said he called university administrators to the scene.
Sye, 22, said the other worker was acting in a threatening manner toward him and the white student who looked at the T-shirt. ''He kept saying, 'You don't want to see me get mad,' '' Sye said.
Brooks said he was more troubled by the caricatures than the list, which he said could have been used to denigrate men of other races.
Sye said: ''I didn't want to see this. There are a lot bigger problems, but it's a matter of dignity and respect for other people.''
Bank One officials met with Ramsey's diversity advisory council, an informal group of advisers, on Friday morning. Later that day, Ramsey sent out the e-mail, saying the bank would write a letter to U of L explaining the incident; meet with students to answer questions, probably next week; and work with U of L on diversity initiatives in the future.
Ramsey also announced the ban on credit card solicitations.
Nancy Norris, vice president for regional media relations at Bank One, said the T-shirts were not on a list of approved giveaway items, and the bank was not aware of the Tshirt offer.
She also said Bank One had approved a marketing event at the U of L men's basketball game Wednesday in Freedom Hall but did not know the workers were at U of L on Thursday.
Solomon, of FrontLine, said Whitlock sent the two to campus Thursday, although they weren't officially scheduled to be there that day.
Norris said Bank One pays about 200 colleges across the country -- including the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University -- for exclusive access to alumni and students. She wouldn't disclose how much money Bank One might lose by canceling its deal with FrontLine.
Bank One's five-year contract with U of L, worth $1.9 million, expires Friday, Goldsmith said. She said the university is seeking bids for a new contract that would allow alumni to be solicited but would stop on-campus solicitations.
The U of L incident comes as credit card solicitations on campus have been criticized around the country.
In 1998, 67 percent of undergraduates had at least one credit card. Three years later 83 percent did, according to a study by Nellie Mae, which provides federally and privately funded student loans. The study said the proportion of students with four or more credit cards increased from 27 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2001.
The average credit card debt of college students in 1999-2000 was $3,066, according to the U.S. Education Department.
''There's a growing epidemic, not only in Kentucky, but across the country, in students mounting up credit card debt without having any income stream to pay for it,'' said Kentucky Treasurer Jonathan Miller, who has testified before Congress on the issue.
Miller said giveaways to entice students to apply for credit cards ''trivialize the responsibilities of credit card use.''
Ashley Helm, 20, a U of L junior, said she was glad about the solicitation ban. ''They should have done it my freshman year,'' said Helm, who added that her credit card debt tops $2,500 and that she signed up for one just to get a free T-shirt.
''When they said you were approved for $1,500, $2,000, I needed it,'' she said. ''You find out the repercussions once those bills start rolling in.''
State Reps. Susan Westrom, DLexington, and Mike Cherry, DPrinceton, are sponsoring a bill to ban the use of gifts to get students to sign up for credit cards, to require colleges to provide credit card and debt education sessions during registration and develop a credit card marketing policy, and to require the Council on Postsecondary Education to regulate credit card marketing on college campuses.
House Speaker Jody Richards, DBowling Green, has introduced a similar bill.
Norris said Bank One is more interested in marketing its universityaffiliated credit cards to alumni than students.
But Robert Manning, an economist at the Rochester Institute of Technology who has studied student credit card debt, said companies target college and even high school students to sign up for cards.
Following the Halloween party incident involving four Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity members, some students thought U of L administrators responded too slowly to condemn what happened.
Brenda Hart, director of student affairs at the Speed School of Engineering, said the university's response to the T-shirt matter was much faster.
''People were shocked when they learned this happened, and I do think the response the university made was appropriate and immediate,'' she said.
Goldsmith said U of L ''learned some things'' from the Halloween Party incident. ''We've always tried to respond quickly, and what we've learned is we have to communicate as quickly as we respond.''
