SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don/eldonnews.org • MONDAY, MARCH 13, 2017
LIFESTYLE 9
SWEET
arrangement
Sugar daddy and sugar baby relationships have become a
popular way to graduate debt-free
BY LAURA O. GARCIA
Sugar daddy websites are proving to be a popular way for female students to overcome rising
college costs, but recent instances of women being attacked by users are causing some to reconsider.
SeekingArrangements.com connects female users to wealthy men who offer financial stability.
The site promises relief from the possibility of false pretense stating users will only get what they
expect.
However, things can sometimes turn awry. Last week, eight women were held captive in Sandy
Springs by a man they met o n the website. Police removed the women from the home and charged
the man on suspicion of false imprisonment and human trafficking for labor.
A survey of student users say they choose sugar dating as a way to help finance their educa-
tion, using the funds on rent, study materials and tuition, said public relations specialist for the
site Alexis Germany.
“If the relationship between two consenting adults becomes sexual that is up to them, but
sexual negotiations are not allowed to take place on SeekingArrangement.com, and members
caught doing so will be removed from the site,” said Germany. “This form of dating is popu-
lar across generations because it is based on traditional values, but given a modern twist.”
College costs are astronomical.
An estimated $1.3 trillion in student loan debt is spread among 44 million American
borrowers with an average monthly loan payment for borrowers aged 20 to 30 of $351,
according to 2017 statistics from Studentloanhero.com.
The average U.S. sugar baby receives about $2,400 a month in allowance while the
average sugar baby in California receives slightly more, about $2,500 per month in
allowance.
Since the beginning of 2017 more students from Cal State Fullerton have signed up
for the service than any other Orange County campus, with 29 new signees, totaling
about 237 sugar babies — people who are financially pampered by a sugar parent
— registered under their university email address.
CSUF is also the only college in Orange County to make the site’s top 100 list
this year, ranking 78th nationwide. Temple University, in Philadelphia, is ranked
as the fastest-growing sugar baby school in the U.S. this year, totaling 1,068 new
accounts.
Founded in 2006 by MIT graduate and so-called “relationship influencer,”
Brandon Wade, SeekingArrangement.com has more than 9 million members
worldwide. In the U.S. there are 2.3 million sugar baby females registered on
the site and roughly 500,000 sugar baby males.
Last Wednesday, Wade made a video in support of the Day Without a
Woman movement, saying SeekingArrangement.com is a feminist site
created “by feminists for feminists.” He says it’s an idea his mother
developed long ago.
“The website really empowers women and men to come and
negotiate a mutually beneficial relationship that works well
for both of them. So, at the core of it, it’s about empowering,
taking matters into your own hands and improving
your life, specifically your dating life,” Wade said.
These students are breaking taboos when choosing
the help they take to get through college.