--- title: Skin Cancer U? Students Tan on Campus at Top Colleges description: America’s top universities may be teaching a dangerous lesson about tanning. Twelve percent of the nation’s top colleges and universities have tanning beds on campus,... canonical: https://time.com/3547265/skin-cancer-college-tanning/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-29T23:08:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:14.261Z og:title: Skin Cancer U? Students Tan on Campus at Top Colleges og:description: America’s top universities may be teaching a dangerous lesson about tanning og:url: https://time.com/3547265/skin-cancer-college-tanning/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c6c00e198870eac/6987635755a85988b6a837ec/tanning-bed-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1562 og:image:height: 879 og:image:alt: A woman lies in a tanning booth in Anchorage, Alaska on Dec 15, 2005. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Skin Cancer U? Students Tan on Campus at Top Colleges twitter:description: America’s top universities may be teaching a dangerous lesson about tanning twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c6c00e198870eac/6987635755a85988b6a837ec/tanning-bed-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Skin Cancer U? Students Tan on Campus at Top Colleges by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Oct 29, 2014 11:08 PM UTC  A woman lies in a tanning booth in Anchorage, Alaska on Dec 15, 2005. A woman lies in a tanning booth in Anchorage, Alaska on Dec 15, 2005.Al Grillo—AP by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Oct 29, 2014 11:08 PM UTC America’s top universities may be teaching a dangerous lesson about tanning. Twelve percent of the nation’s top colleges and universities have tanning beds on campus, and nearly half have them either on campus or in off-campus housing, according to a report published online Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology. Students can even use “campus cash” debit cards loaded up by parents for tanning at 14 percent of the 125 top colleges and universities compiled by U.S. News & World Report. And when tanning beds were offered in off-campus housing, it was free to tenants 96 percent of the time, the study found… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/skin-cancer-u-students-tan-campus-top-colleges-n236856?cid=par-time-article%5F20141029) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3547265/skin-cancer-college-tanning/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3547265/skin-cancer-college-tanning/"},"headline":"Skin Cancer U? Students Tan on Campus at Top Colleges","datePublished":"2014-10-29T23:08:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:14.261Z","description":"America’s top universities may be teaching a dangerous lesson about tanning. Twelve percent of the nation’s top colleges and universities have tanning beds on campus,...","url":"https://time.com/3547265/skin-cancer-college-tanning/","keywords":["Living","Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c6c00e198870eac/6987635755a85988b6a837ec/tanning-bed-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c6c00e198870eac/6987635755a85988b6a837ec/tanning-bed-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A woman lies in a tanning booth in Anchorage, Alaska on Dec 15, 2005.","caption":"A woman lies in a tanning booth in Anchorage, Alaska on Dec 15, 2005.","creditText":"Al Grillo—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3547265/skin-cancer-college-tanning/","name":"Skin Cancer U? Students Tan on Campus at Top Colleges"}}]}] ```