Penn State Student Safety & Alchohol Awareness
For many students college will be the first extended period of time they will spend away from home. Responsibilities on many levels will begin to shift from parent to student. These will include decisions such as whether or not to go to class if feeling ill to how much time to spend studying for the big exam. For most students this will seem like an unchained amount of freedom, but it is important that they understand the consequences of their decisions. Many parents will decide to leave it up to students to learn this by trial and error which is perfectly acceptable, but take a look at some topics below to be better prepared when the time comes to talk to your student
Alchohol Awareness at Penn State
One of the biggest problems on any college campus is alcohol abuse. It is important that your student understands the warning signs of alcohol abuse in themselves and in others. Below you will find some quick tips and helpful links that you can view and discuss with your student. It is a common occurance that underage college students 'experiment' with alcoholic beverages and this is something parents will need to understand. The best thing you can do to combat the effects is talk about it and let your student know your stance on underage drinking. Make them feel like they need to live up to your expectations and follow rules even though you will not always be there. Peer pressure will be prevalent, and your student might feel like they are obligated to drink, but you will have the leg up if you take the time to discuss the effects with your student early.
Lesser known facts about alcoholism:
- Alcohol effects women's bodies differently than men even before taking into account body mass
- Research indicates that the risk for alcoholism runs in families
- Alcoholism is a disease with no cure. Recognize the warning signs in yourself someone you know
Visit these websites for help with alcoholism and to view more information regarding its effects
- Find out if AA is right for you
- NIAAA's Alcoholism FAQs
- Consequences of heavy drinking
- Recognizing Alcoholism
Prevent Student Identity Theft
Identity theft is a problem that is becoming more common in the world we live in today. It is estimated that over 9 million Americans have their identity stolen each year. we have compiled a few quick tips to you can use protect your student from identity theft while attending Penn State.
Protecting your student with infomation about stolen credit cards is helpful, but there are many other ways identity theives access your information. Do you know whether or not you are the only one who can see your input while on a Penn State owned computer? How about the damage someone could cause if you told them your password to your Penn State access account?
Keeping your identity safe while at college
According to the government website on identity theft, it is defined as "when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes."
Tips & ideas on how to protect your identity while participating in common Penn State activities.
Our members have commented to us that they've heard several stories about roommates loaning eachother debit cards (including the PIN number). Reasons vary from purchasing items, grabbing them some cash for the bar that night or to pay for lunch. Simply put this is a horrible idea and your student should know that no matter what their debit and credit cards should be kept to themselves.
Secondly make sure if you are doing personal banking online or viewing information on a computer that you don't want anyone else to see, do it on the computer at your apartment, or dorm. Using a computer anywhere on campus leaves you prone to identity theft. Each workstation on campus can be monitored at any time by the staff of Penn State. While you can hopefully trust the PSU staff, nothing is ever certain and it is always better to be safe than sorry. Lots of times other students are working in the IT department and may gain access to monitoring tools.
Penn State Access Account Information
Your Penn State access account information should be kept just as private as credit card info, Social Security Numbers and banking accounts. If someone wishes to do harm to your students image and they get a hold of their Penn State Access Account information, they can log onto your student's Lionpath page and change their major, class registration, view their bursar/tuition account and countless other sensitive pieces of information.
These introductory tips are very important to talk about with your student before they head off to college. Here are some websites you can view that go into heavier detail about Identity Theft.
- The Govenrment website on identity theft
- What you can do about identity Theft
- Electronic identity Information