Dear Commons Community,

The Huffington Post has an article on college students seeking out sugar daddies to help them pay for tuition.   There is actually a website, seekingarrangement.com, that helps needy female students to hook-up with men.   The article for instance describes in some detail how a student from Hunter College living in Harlem takes a train to Greenwich, CT to meet her “sugar daddy” in person for an afternoon of socializing.  The article quotes the founder of the website as:

“Over the past few years, the number of college students using our site has exploded,” says Brandon Wade, the 41-year-old founder of Seeking Arrangement. Of the site’s approximately 800,000 members, Wade estimates that 35 percent are students. “College students are one of the biggest segments of our sugar babies and the numbers are growing all the time…”

Wade sees his company as providing a unique service, a chance for “men and women living through tough economic times to afford college.” He bristles at the notion that he’s merely running a thinly veiled, digital bordello, choosing instead to describe his site as one that facilitates “mutually beneficial relationships.”

The article also references survey research in the United States and the United Kingdom that supports Wade’s assertion that the number of college students willing to engage in the sex trade to help with tuition has been increasing.  Tough  economic times especially has forced many of them to seek this desperate way to earn money.

Maybe these students could use some good counseling .

Tony