As college costs continue their stubborn rise, and with work harder to come by during an anemic economic recovery, some students are resorting to a rather unusual measure in order to pay their college bills.
“Sugar Daddies,” wealthy older men who provide financial support to younger women in exchange for sex and companionship, have seen a rise in popularity among college students struggling to find a way to pay tuition.
College student membership on SeekingArrangement.com, a website that matches sugar daddies and sugar babies, has increased by 58 percent from December 2011 to December 2012.
“Currently, we have over 2 million members, 44 percent of whom are college students,” Leroy Velasquez, public relations manager at SeekingArrangement.com, told ABC News. “It’s very difficult to retain a part time or full-time job, especially when you have an academic life. With SeekingArrangement, we offer these types of relationships.”
Asked if he thought the anemic economy was contributing to the rise in sugar daddy arrangements, Velasquez said, “I think it’s directly correlated. We are in a very recessive economy, tuition costs and costs of living have increased and people are finding alternative ways of funding a college education, in this case becoming a sugar baby.”
Deeply indebted, facing a lackluster economy, and with jobs scarce, college students and recent graduates are entering into what could be called borderline prostitution to foot their bills.
“In 2011, we saw an explosion in the number of college students seeking sugar daddies to help pay their college tuition”, said SeekingArrangement.com founder Brandon Wade in a news release. “One in every two sugar babies who joins our website today are college students.”
SeekingArrangement.com released a list of the top 20 fastest growing “Sugar Baby” schools: Georgia State, NYU and Temple University topped the list.
According to SeekingArrangement.com, the average co-ed sugar baby receives approximately $3,000 a month in allowances and gifts from her sugar daddy, enough to cover tuition and living expenses at most schools.在美国当前经济复苏势头疲软的形势下，大学学费持续上涨，但工作却更难找到，一些学生正求助于另一种非常手段来支付大学费用。
“糖爹”——也就是以性和陪伴为交换条件向年轻女性提供经济支持的年长的富有男人——越来越受那些苦于无力支付学费的大学生的欢迎。
SeekingArrangement.com是一家为“糖爹”和“糖宝”们牵线搭桥的网站，在该网站注册的大学生会员从2011年12月到2012年12月期间增加了58%。
SeekingArrangement.com的公关经理雷若伊?维拉斯奎兹告诉美国广播公司新闻网说：“目前我们有超过200万的会员，其中44%是大学生。要保有一份兼职或全职工作很难，尤其是那些有课业负担的大学生。而我们在SeekingArrangement.com网站上提供了建立这种特殊关系的渠道。”
在被问及是否认为经济疲软是“糖爹”业务大增的原因时，维拉斯奎兹说：“我认为这是直接相关的。我们身处一个十分萧条的经济环境中，学费和生活成本都上涨了，人们正在寻求支付大学学费的其他方式，于是便做了‘糖宝’。”
身负巨债、经济前景黯淡、工作稀缺……大学生和新近的毕业生们为了支付账单，正步入一种“边缘型卖淫”的生活状态。
SeekingArrangement.com的创立者布兰顿?韦德在一篇新闻通稿中说：“2011年，我们发现寻找‘糖爹’来帮忙支付大学学费的大学生人数激增。现在每两个加入我们网站的‘糖宝’，就有一个是大学生。”
SeekingArrangement.com发布了“糖宝”增速最快的学校前20名，乔治亚州立大学、纽约大学和坦普尔大学位居榜首。
据SeekingArrangement.com网站称，参与援交的“糖宝”一般每月能从“糖爹”那里得到约3000美元的生活费和礼物，足以支付在大部分学校的学费和生活开支。
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