That sounds very… educational. Though not in a good way.

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“Temple uses ‘Negative Option'” by Terry Taylor [Philadelphia Inquirer, 16 September 1973, page 3-C]:

Temple University students won’t have to join a book or a record club to get a taste of what a “negative option” gimmick is.

Under “negative option” a person is given so much time to return a product or he automatically becomes obligated to pay for it.

At Temple this year, this option would apply to student insurance coverage. Students are already receiving forms in the mail about the policy offered by the Zurich- American insurance group. If a student does not return the form to the university by Sept. 30, indicating that he does not want the policy, he automatically becomes the owner of the $30 plan.

“The only reason we’re doing this is to get some sort of compliance from the students and better participation in the program. Before, nil they did was look at the form and throw it out,” explained l’niversity Insurance Manager George A. Reese.

In the past, according to Reese, the university received only about 1,200 replies from an anticipated 10,000 student insurance participants.

Although he claims the university doesn’t make a cent from premiums on the student insurance plan, Reese claimed the “automatic owner” move was initiated because “past performance was so poor insurance companies weren’t willing to come in here to • offer student insurance rates.”

Temple Student Senate Chairman Scott Becker said he was “outraged by the university’s move to recruit more insurance participants, and said the Senate would take legal action to rescind the university’s move, if it had to.

Becker said he would also take issue with the university’s plan to restrict a student from registering for the spring semester if the $30 insurance bill is not paid.

“I know I don’t need their insurance policy. A lot of my mail gets mixed up because I have my own apartment and house. And I don’t want them to tell me around registration time that I can’t register because I don’t pay for my Insurance policy,” Becker said.

Reese, on the other hand, said he “didn’t see what was so hard about checking a box and mailing the form back.”

Furthermore, he claimed, a student is prevented from registering anytime a bill is unpaid.

Reese added that the insurance will be negotiable for some students depending on how good their excuse is, “but they’ll have to do some explaining to get off the hook.”

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