If the flier hasn’t arrived already, students coming to Rutgers University later this month will soon be getting an offer in their mailboxes to buy linens from Follett, a private company.

Later in the school year, graduating students will get an offer from Follett for diploma frames. A percentage of those sales will end up in the university’s bank account, even if students could have gotten a better price on sheets and diploma frames at Target.

As part of its deal with Rutgers, Follett gets the right to manage the lucrative campus bookstore – and gains access to the home addresses of its students. In exchange, it pays the university rent and a percentage of its total sales.

The Follett deal is part of a trend in higher education in which colleges sell access to their students to private companies.

And it is a practice that has come under the microscope since New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched an investigation into the student loan industry, questioning whether schools promote a certain lending institution to students in exchange for kickbacks. Rutgers became part of the widening probe earlier this month when it was contacted about the sponsorship deal its athletic department has with University Financial Services, a private loan consolidator.

Cuomo is investigating whether deals such as this go too far, since companies market themselves as an official loan provider of the schools, using logos, team names and advertising on the schools’ athletic Web sites.

“When it comes to a subject like student loans and it is so complicated to understand which one is best for you, students really do rely on the school’s recommendation,” said Benjamin Lawsky, special assistant to Cuomo. “Students need help, and when a school gets in the situation of being the arbiter of what’s best, that can really impact your life.”

Experts say the investigation is going to force schools to pay more attention to how their individual departments, especially the athletic department, conduct business with all companies.

“The leadership in higher education is going to have to produce appropriate guidelines and decide what is an inappropriate relationship,” said Paul Hassen, a spokesman for the American Council on Education, a Washington-based association of college presidents.

At stake are millions of dollars in contracts between the universities and private companies at a time when cuts in higher education aid have forced universities to find new ways to raise money and keep tuition costs down. And, Rutgers officials say, if students are able to figure out options for linens and diploma frames despite the solicitation from Follett, they can also figure out UFS is one of hundreds of loan consolidation companies.

“This is everyday marketing,” Kevin MacConnell, deputy athletic director at Rutgers, said of the deal with UFS. “It’s a sponsorship deal no different than the other 60 we have.”

Cuomo and certain higher education advocacy groups say universities are putting their own interests ahead of their students.

They charge that in the worst-case scenario, students are being deceived to sign up with a company that may cost them tens of thousands of dollars if UFS doesn’t offer the most competitive rate. They say the university has a conflict of interest by sanctioning a certain company that is paying the school based on how much business the students generate, and allowing the company to pretend it is somehow part of the university.

“On University of Oregon’s athletic Web site, the number to call for UFS was 1-877-GO-DUCKS, which happens to be the school’s nickname,” Lawsky said.

Colleges and universities have aggressively courted private business the last 25 years in a desperate effort to find more money as government scaled back public aid. Gov. Jon Corzine last year ordered Rutgers to cut its budget by $66 million.

Matt Hamill, senior vice president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, said the key is universities have to make an extra effort to conduct their business with private companies transparently to avoid coming under fire for taking advantage of their students, who are a captive audience.

“Deals are vetted and processes are in place when the university sells food operations or the bookstore or phone service,” Hamill said. “Those services are different than a student loan consolidator.”

Perhaps, but marketers say in an era of so-called integrated sponsorships that include advertising and sales, the line between a sponsorship fee and a so-called kickback is a deep shade of gray.

“UFS takes an ad and pays for it, so is that a kickback, and does that mean that Rutgers is recommending it?” asked Jim Lampariello, a former New Jersey Nets executive who has crafted deals for the athletic department at Seton Hall University. “If I see a sign in the stadium for a soda, does that mean I have to buy it?”