State Comptroller Dan Hynes met with Student Senate members on campus yesterday in an effort to better the state’s understanding of credit card debt effects on college students.

Hynes is visiting universities across Illinois to assess college students’ experiences with credit cards in order to facilitate the development of educational programs aimed at informing students on how to handle the responsibility of a credit card.

“The concentration of using a credit card responsibly is severely lacking,” Hynes said. “One way or another, we have to look into institutionalizing this education.”

He warned of the dangers in having a credit card as a low-income student, while stressing how being responsible can help students avoid bad credit or incurring a large debt.

“A credit card creates a perception that you have more than you do,” Hynes said. “What you are doing is establishing a good credit rating by using one and paying it off.”

Hynes also sat patiently as Student Senate members, who successfully banned the solicitation of credit cards in educational buildings last year, took turns telling him of their experience with credit cards.

The majority of the senate members had one or more credit cards while some had no credit cards out of fear of accumulating debt.

Senate member Bill Davidson said he is apprehensive about getting a credit card after witnessing his older brother struggle with post-college credit card debt.

Senate member James Paton said he is constantly bombarded by credit card companies urging him to sign on.

“The number of times I’ve encountered people selling credit cards on campus amazes me,” Paton said. “I wanted a free t-shirt and had to fill out five credit applications.”

Hynes expressed understanding for college students wanting to establish a good credit record for the future, but said doing so is not as pressing an issue as some people make it out to be.

“I personally believe that you can go through college without a credit card and if you graduate and get a decent job you won’t have any problem getting one,” Hynes said.

Northern Illinois University offers a course that educates mainly freshmen on different aspects of college life including the use of credit cards.

Eastern also offers a similar class, but a senate member who took it said it features little in regards to credit card usage.

Hynes pitched senate members the idea of beginning credit card education on the high school level to give them an idea of what they will be faced with.

Student Body President Hugh O’Hara said high school educational programs would be more effective because of mandatory attendance as opposed to the college environment where students come and go more freely.

Dangerous situations associated with student credit card debt include students dropping out to work and pay the down debt, or the vicious cycle of students acquiring credit card debt in the school year and attempting to pay it off in the summer, he said.

Hynes’ university visits are intended to help his associates prove to the state that credit card debt among university students is a problem.

This year Eastern’s senate is seeking to pass legislation which would ban credit card solicitation from residence halls in addition to the legislation passed last semester which kept those companies out of educational buildings.

“We will hopefully be passing legislation within the next couple of weeks using the same process as before,” Speaker of the Student Senate Joe Robbins said.