MSU Federal Credit Union in East Lansing, Mich., has grown to be the world's largest university-based credit union, resulting from efforts made to attract students and keep the students after graduation. Oh, how I wish my 18-year-old son Adam had access to a credit union like MSU Federal at the university he is attending!
According to a press release from Joyce Banish, MSU FCU's marketing director, the CU's efforts begin with the academic orientation program hosted by the university. Sign-up materials are sent in advance of the orientation and an MSU student (below) is selected to greet students and talk about the credit union during the 2½ months of orientation. 
The press release also notes that "MSU hosts many additional events for students after they move into the dorms. MSU FCU representation was at all of them: U-Fest, Sparticipation, International Grad Students, Residence Hall, New Faculty Orientation, International Students, Rock the Block, Midnight Madness, etc."
With my insistence that we use the credit union at Adam's school, my family filled the credit union's ID number in as the depository institution for his student loan early this year. And there the saga began:
We heard nothing from the credit union, so in mid-July when I drove Adam seven hours away for student orientation, I went straight to the credit union's branch in the student union.
- Orientation registration began at 7 a.m. The campus credit union did not open until 9 a.m., when my son and I were scheduled to be in two different orientation sessions. Unfortunately, their competition, U.S. Bank, had many early risers on hand, with smiling faces, free key chains with a space for the student ID, and credit card applications at the ready.
- I missed part of parent orientation to ask credit union staff if they had received our request to have his loan deposited with them, and an employee said, "We don't respond until you fill out a membership application." (How could we know that, and why wouldn't they mail one?) So I filled out the information I could, missing even more of the parent orientation. Since they needed Adam's signature and other details, he missed a portion of his orientation to complete additional paperwork.
- Throughout the day, Adam and I were asked at least four times if we would like to open an account at U.S. Bank. Each time we politely replied that he is a member of the credit union.
I wish I could say the saga ended here, but it did not. When we signed Adam up for membership, we also applied up for a low-balance credit card. The card did not arrive by the time we dropped him off at school (more than a month after student orientation).
Once again, we stopped at the branch in the student union. When I expressed concern that we had not received the card, an employee said the credit union would cancel the original request for a card mailed to our home, and re-issue a request for a card to be delivered to the credit union branch, where Adam could pick it up.
On a day-to-day basis, I'm impressed by the progressive member service CUES member credit unions offer their members. On the two days I visited this credit union, I was frustrated as a mother … feeling I needed to beg them to take my son's money and accept him as a member.
Barb Kachelski, CAE, is SVP/chief information officer for CUES and a former newspaper reporter.
