As you read this, your ability to pay for college expenses in the most effective, efficient and convenient way is being slowly, silently and purposefully subverted in the hopes of propping up a floundering business.

Our financial life (is) being thrown into the salivating jaws of the bill collector, the control of a miserly, profit-seeking bank, and the merciless credit card companies.

Your ability to choose is gone; you and I are prisoners of the whims of the university czars who would have you believe that the ISUCard is the answer to nearly everything. How wrong they are.

The much anticipated and ballyhooed ISUCard is surely enough becoming a reality; and after reading the propaganda sheet they give you upon obtaining the card, I feel the misinformation necessitates a response.

To begin, the propaganda sheet contends that the ISUCard has come in response to new, “technological innovations” which will allow the university to offer more capabilities, and suggests that having a Social Security number as an identification number is dangerous and problematic.

However true these may be, it is also important to point out (which the propaganda didn’t) that the main reason the new card came into existence is because of the Campus Bookstore’s sloth-like sales and the claim that because students could charge text books to their university bill, the UBS had an unfair advantage.

Last autumn, the CBS managed to convince the Regents to do away with the old card and replace it with a card that doesn’t provide more paying options, but actually limits options.

Instead of solving their sales problem with capitalistic forces and solutions, CBS preferred to take a “scorched earth” approach, where if they couldn’t have access to the university charge, no one should.

Consequently, the current ISUCard was born shortly thereafter.

For the CBS to contend that the UBS somehow had an unfair, monopolistic advantage is ridiculous. It is my understanding that the various antitrust laws don’t apply to state interests, and because the university OWNS the UBS, it stands to reason that they could implement whatever paying options they wanted, especially those that might help students.

Aside from this, just because UBS customers can use their ID to put purchases on their university bill doesn’t necessarily mean the CBS should be afforded the same opportunity. Just because Sears has their own credit option doesn’t mean it should be usable at Younkers.

Since the university owns the UBS and the ID card, they can use it however they want. In addition, there was nothing that said the CBS couldn’t start their own credit system if they wanted.

The “actual” reasons the propaganda put forth are not unfounded, they are just elevated to an obscene level to hide the truth. Granted, there may be some danger in using the Social Security number as an ID number, but it is no more of a danger than having your social security number on a driver’s license, on a voter registration card, on an insurance card, or visible and subject to public examination when a credit application or credit purchase is made (commonly you must show your license as identification before a credit purchase can be processed).

In addition, wasn’t the new Campanile Card supposed to allow for the same technological advantages as the new ISUCard?

The Campanile Card was going to be usable at the as of yet mythic new-age vending machines, in conjunction with a proposed debit service, and the standard university services. The only addition to the new ISUCard is the checking account ATM option which is operated by Firststar bank. Under this option, if a student wanted to use this service, it could be obtained without having to recard the university.

As a Firststar customer, I have a checking/ATM card which can be used just like a ATM card for making purchases and is accepted anywhere ATM and credit cards are accepted. Essentially, it is a checking account without checks, only a plastic card. There is no need for the students of ISU to be subject to the profit motives of Firststar bank. If anyone is going to have a monopoly on student finances, it will be Firststar.

Finally, upon analysis of the two cards (Campanile and ISUCard), there appears to be no difference aside from a slightly larger second magnetic strip, and the aesthetics.

This leads me to believe that there is no technological difference. It seems to me that if the university wanted to institute this Firststar contract, they could have just encouraged students to independently seek the bank out, not have the bank seek us.

The fact students will no longer be able to use the university billing option severely takes the freedom of choice away from us. Prior to the ISUCard, students could choose from ATM payment, credit card, cash, check, or university bill.

Now the university charge option doesn’t exist. However, you can apply for the credit option through Firststar Bank. Essentially this is a credit card, issued by Elan financial services, through Firststar, with a student limit of $500, a yearly membership fee, and high interest rates.

There is nothing that differentiates the Firststar charge card from any other credit card, except that Firststar has a captive and willing pool of 25,000 applicants that they can harass into getting a card, getting into debt, and making the banks mounds of cash. Nothing prior to the ISUCard was preventing a student from getting this very card. Just as nothing was stopping the student from opening a checking/ATM account.

I think it is also important to mention that the supposed uneven playing field was misrepresented. Both the CBS and UBS had the ability to use credit cards, check cards, personal checks, and ATM cards. The only difference was that the UBS had the university charge.

It is clearly obvious that czars of the university have decided not to stand up for a program that is good for the student and the university. No longer will the university be able to reap the financial benefits of increased UBS sales. No longer will the student be allowed to defer payments with no interest.

Instead, we are forced into a situation that is a step back and essentially already existed if a student wanted to take part in Firststar’s program (I did). Now students are in essence being forced to subsidize the faltering venture of the CBS.

Personally, I don’t want my financial stability to be altered so as to ensure that the CBS stays in business. If the CBS can’t figure out how to solve its own problems, then they will be destined to go out of business, but somehow thinking that their existence should be prolonged exploits the student, (which) is patently irresponsible.

You should have a choice in this matter; but the university doesn’t think so, hence the ISUCard.

Zach Carstensen is a sophomore in political science at Iowa State University.