In the 1960s, when college students were referred to as “red” it meant that they were anti-war radicals, Maoists or maybe members of the lunatic fringe that traced its roots to Trotsky or Lenin.

This spring’s crop of college graduates is more apt to be in the red – in debt.

Last month, Susan Schmidt Bies, a governor of the Federal Reserve Board, took the opportunity during a speech at the business school of a small college in Buffalo to lecture the audience on the appalling lack of financial literacy in this country. “The increase in consumer debt is particularly apparent among younger adults,” Ms. Bies instructed the luncheon crowd.

Ms. Bies quoted a 2002 Nellie Mae survey that found that undergraduate student debt had risen by 66% from just five years before. Compounding that number was a recent Survey of Consumer Finances warning that 18- to 24-year-olds are awash in a red tide of credit-card debt: Debt in that age group doubled between 1992 and 2001.

And kids don’t wise up after graduation. Another Survey of Consumer Finances revealed delinquency rates on credit cards – meaning one debt payment more than 60 days past due – were twice a high in households headed by someone under 35 years old than in households headed by those aged 35 to 44.

The following statistics could be more important to the future of this year’s seniors than their GPAs. The average college student now graduates with $20,000 in loans. The average salary for a graduate is $30,000. That’s apart from the credit-card load for books and Friday night pizza. If a graduate pays the minimum on the average $3,262 credit-card debt, MSN personal finance expert Liz Pulliam Weston points out, he or she will be sending in the last payment in 18 years.

How many of your teenagers know what an IRA is? If they think it has something to do with Ireland and the Troubles, that’s a good thing – at least they read the paper or watch the news. But if they don’t know that it has an American application, they flunk Personal Finance 101.

The scary question of Why Johnny Can’t Save has prompted several banks to invest in programs that teach financial literacy. Credit-ED is Citigroup’s lesson plan for teaching kids, and grown-ups for that matter, how to use credit cards wisely. Of course, it is those same banks that shower credit cards on freshman at registration (if not before), but let’s not quibble. Education is a good thing and it is not in the bank’s interest for students to default entirely.

Last month, on the same day by coincidence that the Fed’s Ms. Bies drilled Canisius College’s business school on the negative numbers of junior personal finance, a Credit-Ed survey conducted by Harris Interactive published the following dismal findings:

* 22% of upperclassman plan to spend leftover money on entertainment or personal items compared to 15% last year.

* Only one in five upperclassmen plan to save or invest any money left over after expenses, compared to 30% last year.

* Almost one-third have missed or been late on a credit-card payment.

* A quarter have written a check that bounced.

* Nearly three in 10 students do not save money for future purchases.

These credit-card carrying collegians are remarkably sanguine about their future. More than 40% of the upperclassman polled expect to be financially secure, meaning that they will be able to afford the lifestyle they want with little debt, within three years of graduation.

Whatever happened to undergraduate angst?

As this spring’s graduates use their experience and schooling to put together stellar resumes to launch their careers, they would be wise to study their own finances. It’s not just what you earn or learn in life that matters, it is also how you spend and, dare we mention, save.

Ms. Bailey is a writer and therapist in New York. She can be reached at ebailey@nysun.com.