Many SPC grads may soon remember, and help, their alma mater every time they charge a purchase.
By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
Published June 26, 2003
St. Petersburg College deserves some credit.
Or at least a credit card featuring the school's logo, according to the college alumni association. The group plans to sponsor a credit card for college alumni.
"No one would give us a card when we were still a junior college," said Amelia Carey, executive director of the alumni association. "We know the card has worked for other universities and we hope it will work for us."
Now that the college includes four-year degree plans, its alumni association is working with MBNA America Bank to provide card applications to about 60,000 alumni starting in September. The logo hasn't been designed, but it will likely be blue and white, it may have an ocean background and will feature the school's mascot, a titan.
The alumni association will get $1 for every credit card account that is opened and stays open for 90 days. It also gets a fraction of 1 percent of some purchases made with the card.
Most major universities have at least one credit card affiliation. The first ones were given out around 20 years ago, said Alan Herscott, MBNA's director of new business initiatives for colleges and universities. MBNA's first clients were Georgetown University and the American Dental Association, he said. From there, the bank went on to represent 800 universities, the NFL and the NHL.
It has turned down SPC before.
"We do not do community colleges," Herscott said. "The reason being is that we feel there's a greater affinity with a four-year school."
The SPC alumni who receive mailings must formally apply for the credit line. MBNA expects 10 to 15 percent of the people contacted to actually get the cards.
MBNA has credit card deals with both the University of Miami and Florida State University. It is in talks with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
"A great majority of the schools have it," Herscott said. "It's a great way to brand your image and stay in front of your alumni, your donors and your friends. Every time you pull it out, there it is, the image."
Any money received will go toward scholarships, Carey said.
"We're not the Gators, we're not the Seminoles," Carey said. "We're limited as to what we can do to raise our money. This is just a way that we thought would give the college added exposure and also bring a little bit of money into our bank account."
