Easy credit can mean long-term hardship for college students

In 1997, Mitzi Pool, a freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma, hanged herself in her dorm room, a pile of credit card bills splayed on her sunflower-print bedspread.Her mother, Trisha Johnson, of Enid, Okla., blames Mitzi’s despair about $2,000 in credit card debt for the loss of a daughter whom friends nicknamed the ââ?¬Å?Jokerââ?¬Â because she was always smiling. ââ?¬Å?The companies at the student union had stands up, offering free hats, free T-shirts,ââ?¬Â Johnson says. ââ?¬Å?She got one, maxed it out, got another and then a third.ââ?¬Â