This article made me sad

In today's NY Times: "On campus, it's one big commercial"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/b...pw=&adxnnlx=1315746076-RRRjQyH0SakW1QdDDDiGag

Snippet:
JUST before 10 on a Saturday night in August, hundreds of U.N.C. freshmen line up outside the campus bookstore, waiting for a fleet of buses to take them to Target. At the front of the line is Dasia Robinson, a senior and, for the day, a Target brand ambassador. She has a soft spot for Target, she says. On her first weekend at U.N.C., she met four students during a similar Target event. They became her best friends.
“Target incorporated their brand into the fact that we are college students,” she says. “I really do appreciate that.”
She revs up the new Carolina Tar Heels. “Tar!” she yells.
“Heels!” the crowd yells back.
The Target student reps stand out: they are wearing red T-shirts that say “COLLEGE,” punctuated by Target’s bull’s-eye logo.
“This is our first big college experience,” says Viraj Patel, 18, standing in line next to freshman friends from high school.
When the first bus arrives, the students rush forward as if it were Black Friday. Twenty minutes later, the first bus arrives at the SuperTarget. Mr. Crisp, the U.N.C. vice chancellor, greets the students and alerts those following on Twitter.
“First bus load at Target!!! Let the fun begin!!” Mr. Crisp posts @vicecrispy. A little later, he posts: “Target is rocking!!! Come on out!”

Hard to reconcile this with my college experience 20+ years ago.
Maybe we were more sheltered back then but my best memories of college have no corporate associations. I cant believe that the defining moment of the start of college for these kids is going shopping at Target.

 

Maybe it's one of those fancy Target stores, pronounced Tar-jay.