Colleges and universities around the country include many security measures for their students, faculty, and staff to ensure a safer experience on campus. One community college in New Jersey, Raritan Valley Community College, decided to provide identity theft services for all of its students, faculty, and staff as just another way to keep everyone safe.
Financial Protection for Everyone
Raritan Valley Community College strives to offer comprehensive services for an environment that encourages social, emotional, and educational growth. Along with offering programs and services that keep people physically safe, assist with maintaining mental and physical health, and facilitate learning in a hospitable environment, the college now proffers ways to help students avoid the financial fallout of identity theft and fraud.
According to the college’s VP of Finance & Facilities John Trojan, “At RVCC we take a holistic approach to the lives of our students, faculty and staff. Along with supporting their educational, social and emotional growth, the addition of Identity Theft services and our partnership with ID Resolution will offer another layer of support at this vulnerable time in their lives. We are proud that RVCC is at the forefront of providing new and meaningful services and programs in a rapidly changing world. Clearly identity theft is very real, it’s not going away and we felt a need to address it.”
What Services are Offered?
The college has formed a partnership with ID Resolution that makes its WRP service available to anyone who has been a victim of identity theft or just suspects it may have occurred. This gives them the opportunity to work with a personal Fraud Specialist to help them through the often complex and frustrating process of resolving the issues.
The Fraud Specialist facilitates interaction with a variety of agencies necessary for identity theft resolution, including creditors, law enforcement agencies, credit reporting agencies, collection companies, professional associations, and more. They can also assist the victim in taking action, such as placing credit freezes, suppressions, or fraud alerts with the major credit bureaus. All of these services are provided free of charge.
Why Colleges Need to Offer ID Theft Protection
The most vulnerable population for identity theft is those under the age of 29, and college students are exceptionally at risk. College marks the first time many students have to worry about their individual finances, taking out credit cards and managing bank accounts. Their naivety in financial matters may make them more vulnerable to scams. Millennials also post much more of their information online in a variety of places, including social media, allowing for their information to be hacked and used for fraudulent reasons. They also do not take the steps to protect their information when using unprotected WiFi services, making it easy for hackers to steal the sensitive data.
Raritan Valley Community College chose to include identity theft services for their students to provide another area through which they help their students remain safe during their transition into adulthood. This action reflects how many of the modern threats to the health and safety of college students, faculty, and staff are digital, not physical. It most likely will not be long before many other colleges and universities jump on board and offer their communities similar protective measures for any identity theft and fraud that takes place.