I attended a large state school in the early 2010’s and I witnessed a lot of the things described in the article. Many affluent out-of-state students had dorm rooms lushly decorated with disposable tchotchkes. Most of this is completely between the students and parent, however, there definitely was some sort of commercialization involving university administrators.

At the beginning of every school year, the university distributed marketing material literature for services such as:

- On campus “pop-up shops” for dorm decorations

- Overpriced minifridge rentals

- Overpriced and low quality linens/sheets/towels

- Organized shopping trips to department stores (students were bussed from campus to the store and the store was closed to the public)

The advertisements were often construed as official university services, but were actually just lead generators for 3rd party businesses.

Obviously, the university was getting some sort of kickback for all of this.