Imagine being inundated with harassing phone calls from finance agencies, ridiculous bills from credit card companies, and letters from your bank saying they’re closing your account. Sounds like nothing that could happen to a college student, right?
But these iron gates aren’t protecting us. In fact, they’re putting us at risk.
Last week, as reported in the campus beat, a Nextel phone was purchased and a $2,000 bill run up from someone who stole a male student’s social security number. Although this case is an isolated incident on the Fairfield campus, horror stories about identity theft among college students are springing up throughout the nation.
Jennifer Barrett, ’04 agrees. “Social security codes are meant to be private. The fact that this university throws them on everything concerns me. I understand they need a code to identify us with, but they should just make up an arbitrary number.”
When Social Security cards were first issued, they contained the phrase “Not to be used for identification.” However, since Social Security numbers never change and no laws enforcing that were ever made, many institutions have found Social Security numbers to be the perfect form of identification.
Unfortunately, for Fairfield University students and many other students across the nation, that task is impossible. Our identification cards listing pertinent information like our birth date and our social security numbers must be carried at all times and allow us access to our dorms, computer labs and cafeteria.
Identity thefts lead the list of consumer complaints last year with almost 700,000 victims, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s report. Identity thieves view students as easy prey because most have a clean credit history, don’t worry about their account privacy, and change their address often.
One of the most important measures that experts, including the Victim’s Assistance of America, recommend to keep your identity safe is to not carry your Social Security card, passport or birth certificate in your purse or wallet.
“It was our decision to use the social security code as a way of identifying students,” said Robert Russo, university registrar. “It is a customary method, only students know the code. Everything in our office is confidential, no information is released without written request.”
Students across the nation are demanding that their colleges and universities stop attaching their Social Security numbers to vast amounts of personal student information. Many feel the change would diminish the risk of “identity theft,” the misuse of personal information such as a Social Security, credit card, or bank-account number leading to access to someone’s money or credit.
“I think it’s a poor idea. The card has our social security numbers and our birth dates,” said Chris Karch, ’04. “That’s pretty much everything a thief needs to steal our identity. It makes me uneasy having to use a card that treats my personal information so nonchalantly.”
But some students aren’t too concerned. “It doesn’t seem to bear too much relevance,” said Paul DeSena, ’03. “It’s Fairfield University, not Worcester Polytech. There are very few hackers that we have on this campus that could actually do anything with someone’s social security number.”
Students are not the only ones pressing colleges on the Social Security issue. Arizona, California, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin have all passed laws that limit colleges’ ability to use or display the number. New York’s law, which took effect last July, prohibits colleges from displaying a student’s name next to his or her Social Security number.
Although many students are worried about the possibility of someone stealing their identity through their social security codes, administration seems unconcerned.
“If students are proactive about protecting their ID as they would a drivers license and a credit card there should be no problem,” said Michael Tortura, coordinator of information systems for student services. “When people punch holes in them and stick it on their key chain it becomes a problem because the card could crack and fall off.”
Russo agrees. “There are no plans at present to alter the system. I am aware of the changes in law in those states, but social security codes are used at other Jesuit schools like Saint Johns and Loyola. There are a lot of people with the same name in our system and by using a number like this it helps identity people quickly and accurately.”
Almost half of all colleges nationwide still use Social Security numbers to track students in academic databases, according to a survey last year by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The survey also showed that 79 percent of colleges display students’ Social Security numbers on official transcripts.
Changing the system is slow and costly. Due to tight budgets, many colleges are hesitant to do away with tradition and make the costly changes.
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