2008 Woodie Awards
RSSPushing Products
Editorial
By Edit Board
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Opinion
Students enrolling in Lehigh all receive a package of information from residential services about what to expect at Lehigh, what to pack, where to eat and where they will be living. In the same Lehigh-produced brochure is a page promoting Residence Hall Linens, a company that sells bed sheets that are guaranteed to fit the extra-long beds only found in dorm rooms.
The service seems convenient and appealing to students who have never been to college. The sheets are positioned as the only way to make sure your sheets will fit. Incoming freshmen, especially those who are out of state or international, are especially vulnerable because they don't want to be stuck on their first week of college without bed sheets.
The quality of the bed sheet packages, however, is poor. In the advertisements and on their Web site, the company does not even list the thread count of the sheets, a must-know indicator of sheet quality. Thread counts or other lacking information is only available if you call up the company and request information.
And the implied threat that only their sheets are "guaranteed to fit" is misleading. Most standard twin bed sheets will fit extra-long beds, a fact that Residential Services conveniently neglects to mention. The cost of the sheet packages aren't even competitively priced - for the same price students could buy high thread count, high quality 100 percent cotton sheets.
But the kicker here is that Lehigh makes money by promoting Residence Hall Linens to incoming freshmen by getting paid a portion of the sales. They are preying on the insecurities of students - and their parents - to buy overpriced poor quality sheets, and then get a kickback from the higher profits they enjoy.
This is a nasty deal to students. True, the money does go to help pay for student programs, such as service trips. But students shouldn't be preyed upon, no matter what the cause.
The larger issue here is with what companies the university aligns with. The university has many business deals with private companies. For example, you can buy a discounted Apple or Dell computer through LTS. Or you can get an eight percent discount on AT&T cell phone plans, along with other discounts. Sobe and other companies have promotion deals with Lehigh at events and around campus.
Some of these agreements are beneficial to all parties, offering discounts to students, money to the school and customers to the companies. Students can save hundreds on expensive computers that they were going to buy anyway or get unique product bundles that will be tailored to college students.
But there needs to be a review process for all of these contracts to make sure students are getting a good deal.
Lehigh needs to be as up-front as possible about all partnerships, revealing the types of deals they are in, along with information about the company they are involved in. If those companies refuse to be as honest and forthright - for example in refusing to reveal the thread count of sheets - then that business relationship should be terminated.
Students are a highly targeted demographic and companies will pay to get in partnerships to access students. But the university must be responsible in screening out business deals that could end up harming students.
The service seems convenient and appealing to students who have never been to college. The sheets are positioned as the only way to make sure your sheets will fit. Incoming freshmen, especially those who are out of state or international, are especially vulnerable because they don't want to be stuck on their first week of college without bed sheets.
The quality of the bed sheet packages, however, is poor. In the advertisements and on their Web site, the company does not even list the thread count of the sheets, a must-know indicator of sheet quality. Thread counts or other lacking information is only available if you call up the company and request information.
And the implied threat that only their sheets are "guaranteed to fit" is misleading. Most standard twin bed sheets will fit extra-long beds, a fact that Residential Services conveniently neglects to mention. The cost of the sheet packages aren't even competitively priced - for the same price students could buy high thread count, high quality 100 percent cotton sheets.
But the kicker here is that Lehigh makes money by promoting Residence Hall Linens to incoming freshmen by getting paid a portion of the sales. They are preying on the insecurities of students - and their parents - to buy overpriced poor quality sheets, and then get a kickback from the higher profits they enjoy.
This is a nasty deal to students. True, the money does go to help pay for student programs, such as service trips. But students shouldn't be preyed upon, no matter what the cause.
The larger issue here is with what companies the university aligns with. The university has many business deals with private companies. For example, you can buy a discounted Apple or Dell computer through LTS. Or you can get an eight percent discount on AT&T cell phone plans, along with other discounts. Sobe and other companies have promotion deals with Lehigh at events and around campus.
Some of these agreements are beneficial to all parties, offering discounts to students, money to the school and customers to the companies. Students can save hundreds on expensive computers that they were going to buy anyway or get unique product bundles that will be tailored to college students.
But there needs to be a review process for all of these contracts to make sure students are getting a good deal.
Lehigh needs to be as up-front as possible about all partnerships, revealing the types of deals they are in, along with information about the company they are involved in. If those companies refuse to be as honest and forthright - for example in refusing to reveal the thread count of sheets - then that business relationship should be terminated.
Students are a highly targeted demographic and companies will pay to get in partnerships to access students. But the university must be responsible in screening out business deals that could end up harming students.
