Many college students aren't very proactive in monitoring their credit, but it's good to note some ways to protect your indentity and, by proxy, your credit score:

--Take advantage of the ability to receive a free credit report from comapnies when your credit is checked, or the new government-required program that allows you to get a free copy of your credit report from the major agencies once a year (the big three being Experian, Trans Union and Equifax).
--Sign up for a credit monitoring service. I pay $10 a month to have one of the big agencies notify me when a change has been made to my credit report, and have the ability to see what's been done. If a card is opened up under my name, I have the ability to look and be sure it's something I authorized.
--Most of all, be selective about who you give your information out to. For instance, banks will not call you or E-mail you to get your information because of a "server crash". Rest assured that they have their data backed up multiple ways. The same goes for other services. Unless you specifically are applying for a job or applying for credit (or, say, signing up for a wireless phone, which requires a credit check), you shouldn't be handing your information out to anyone.

Here's the Post's info, and a good tech perspective as well.

Congratulations to all of the 2006 graduates, and have a happy and healthy summer! Hopefully we'll have some items to keep the blog warm this summer.

EXPELLED STUDENTS REACT: The Buzz reported extensively on the students who were expelled following an off-campus Halloween party that took place last semester, that the blog that followed offering some of their thoughts. The Chronicle sat down with four of the students recently, getting their reactions and perspectives now that some time has passed (link). According to the former students, who are now suing Quinnipiac for announcing their explusions to the press, they felt that they were given unfair treatment after they made attempts to end the party, and they were also told originally that they were only going to be dismissed, not expelled.

STUDENT ASSUALT: A QU student who was assaulted on-campus late one night recently spoke out to the Chronicle about his experience, with questions raised about guests on campus and safety in general (link). His story definitely encourages many to keep in mind their surroundings and their own personal state of mind when out late at night on the relatively open campuses most colleges and universities provide.

ANOTHER THANKS: To Chronicle Editor-in-Chief (and Post blogger/freelancer) Jamie DeLoma and the rest of the Chronicle crew for keeping us posted on recent developments on their campus.

What's the buzz on your campus? E-mail Josh at thebuzz@ctpost.com.

INJUNCTION DYSFUNCTION: An injunction in place since 2001 at Fairfield Beach limiting the number of students that can be there at one time has been made permanent by a judge recently (link). The injunction was put into place after a trial surrounding the popular (with students, anyway) the fall Luau and spring Clam Jam events that beach residents would have at Lantern Point. The injunction followed a lawsuit brought by nine year-round beach residents after years where the Clam Jam event, depsite efforts by both student government and the school to keep things under control, had swelled some years to over 5000 attendees. Many students see the loss of the injunction as an example of tradition at Fairfield (and a potential breach of civil liberties), while others see it as just an attempt to keep the peace down at the beach.

100 NETS 250: After Fairfield cancelled the original 200 Nights event because of the belief that it was not a positive addition to the school events calendar (read: too much alcohol, not much else), student leader Ashlee Fox took great pains to establish a new tradition: 100 Nights(link). She even kept the venue a secret to discourage drunk driving, and established the event without any aid from the university administration. 200 Nights was plagued with issues in years past, from difficulty finding places that would accomodate the event to a bus getting lodged under a bridge on the return trip from one year's event.

DEATH OF A FRIEND: In February student Alejandro Carrion, a sophomore at Fairfield, passed away in his sleep, a great loss to the student community (link). Carrion was at the time of his passing a College Republican, involved in Pep Band and was also part of the Ignatian Residential College, a program that offers unique opportunities to sophomores at the university in learning and growing as a person.

THANK YOU: To all those at The Mirror who have kept us in the loop on all that's going on.

What's the buzz at your campus? E-mail Josh at thebuzz@ctpost.com.

Onward:

MENINGITIS CONCERNS: Fairfield University's Mirror reported Thursday on the death of a Marist student from bacterial meningitis, and the concerns that are now rising over the potential for an outbreak (link). While Connecticut now mandates that all students be vaccinated against meningitis, the vaccine does not cover all known strains. And even though students are vaccinated, it did not stop the death of the Marist student, who had been vaccinated already.

FORMER STUDENT MURDERED: The Mirror also reported on the death of of Ciara McDermott '97, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in an apparent murder-suicide (link). McDermott was a police officer on the Newington force.

CASH AS CREDIT: Who's been posting all those ads around campus? Southern administration wants to know, and is even willing to pay for such knowledge, the Southern News reports (link). Ads promoting bar specials and happenings at clubs are littering the campus, and now the school is using its own students in an attempt to crack down on the rampant issue. Causing even more difficulty: many times the bars and clubs hire college-aged students to promote the events on their own campuses.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Students at Southern are upset at what they find is overpriced merchandise at the on-campus food stores that sell similar items to Stop & Shop, but at higher prices (link). Those in charge of the operation state that the issue comes down to volume. If Stop & Shop is really that much cheaper, maybe a Peapod delivery order should be placed daily to keep the store stocked and at lower prices?

REALITY BITES: Students at Sacred Heart were treated to a pair of ex-MTV reality show stars speaking out eating disorders recently, the Spectrum reported (link). Both speakers brought their personal experiences with them as they talked about the importance of keeping a healthy attitude about body image, while not succombing to the pressure of a perfect body, which can lead some down the path to anorexia or bulimia.

DREAMING OF SUCCESS: A Buzz reader wrote in asking about a program at Housatonic called "Achieving the Dream" and if we had any details. I'm happy to help. The Connecticut Post reported Nov. 2 that the college was in the running for a $400,000 grant for the program, a grant which would be for a four-year period. Reporter Linda Conner Lambeck provided these details in her report:

For purposes of the grant, success is defined as increasing the
number of students who:

Anita Gliniecki, dean of students at Housatonic, said the idea
is to not only promote students' success, but, in a sense, to
"bottle" it, so other colleges can do the same things.

The school has already received $50,000 from the Nellie Mae Foundation for the program. In the spring, they are up for a potential $400,000 grant from the same foundation.

The school will also use the program to ensure that courses are being held at times where students can attend. Many times students are forced to defer or drop out because class times begin to clash with changing work schedules.

Hope that helps, and if any other readers know anything further, please pass it on to The Buzz! Stay safe and don't get trampled in the malls by all the holiday shoppers :)

What's the Buzz on your campus? Drop Josh a line at thebuzz@ctpost.com

UPDATES: Some of the students expelled from Quinnipiac over the Halloween party held a few weeks ago launched a blog to share their side of the story, the QU Chronicle reports (link). The blog can be found here.

Also, Sony BMG has recalled the discs that included the copy protection technology that we shared with you last week in EnterTech. If you bought one of those CDs, Sony BMG is willing to replace it with an MP3 copy of the album and a copy that does not include the copy protection. The site they created for information about the copy protection lists the CDs affected, and how to get a replacement. Ironically, the first version of the uninstall software Sony BMG provided to remove the software had a security flaw of its own - that has been fixed with a new version of the uninstaller.

ANOTHER EXPLUSION: And following a Yellowcard concert at QU, another student was expelled for intoxication (link). The student hit three parked cars before security found the student.

D'OH: And now for something completely different: is The Simpsons just a funny, long-running cartoon, or is there more to it? Well, one professor, who has taught a course at Southern on The Simpsons, has found more than just rapid-fire humor (link). Students will find this course to be no easy A, but will instead find interesting layers embedded into the popular TV show.

REGISTRATION FRUSTRATION: It's the time of semester where students are selecting courses for spring, but different schools are encountering different problems. At Sacred Heart, athletes are finding it difficult to get the courses they are required to take, a trend not found at many other campuses because athletes are given preferred registration status (link). And at Fairfield, issues with online registration and course availability come out again, in an opinion piece by former Post intern and friend of The Buzz Kelly Sheehan, who shared her personal experience in this week's Mirror about her difficulties in completing her senior year on time (link). Registration time is frustrating for many - good luck to all.

What's the buzz at your campus? E-mail Josh at thebuzz@ctpost.com

FOLLOW-UP: Fairfield seniors are also officially moving ahead with their alternative to 200 Nights after Fairfield pulled the plug on the troubled, yet long-standing tradition (link). The new tradition will tentatively be called "100 Nights". Less nights, but a new tradition may be born.

TOAD'S RAIDED: Popular music and bar destination Toad's Place was raided last weekend by Connecticut Liquor Control officers looking to see if underagers were drinking, the Quinnipiac Chronicle reported (link). The attendees, which included Quinnipiac students, were held as late as 12:30, depending on whether they were over 21 or not. This is the first raid of Toad's in recent memory.

PAIR OF GOOD READS: The Southern News has been on top of all sorts of interesting trend stories this semester, and this issue is no exception. Check out this pair of stories on self-injury and fast food (which brings up the age-old "Freshman 15").

What's the buzz on your campus? Know of a cool event that's taking place? Let Josh know by E-mailing him at thebuzz@ctpost.com.

COLD REACTION: Otherwise, it's been a quiet week around here, but many have reacted to the recent colder weather that has moved in. Most of the reaction has come from students who have earlier classes. One student from Southern I talked to thanked me for reminding her to bring her jacket and gloves home when she visited the family this weekend. The temperatures were scheduled to moderate a bit over the next few days, but you weather freaks can stay on top of the regional conditions through the Post's Weather page (link).

JAIL TIME: The men arrested in connection with the Mark Fisher case were sentenced on Oct. 19, bringing an end to the two year investigation that we recently reported about here in The Buzz and followed carefully by Fairfield University's paper, The Mirror (link). Antonio Russo, 19, and John Giuca, 22, were both given long-term sentences for their roles in the murder, receiving 25 years to life for his murder, as well as concurrent 25 year sentences for robbing Fisher. Guico was also given time for a weapons charge.

OUTSIDE THE AREA: The Mirror also offered an interesting guide to Stamford in Thursday's issue (link). The guide is the latest in a series that began running last year, and has also covered such areas as New Haven and South Norwalk. They're all great guides to making the most of the parts of Fairfield County many don't know about.

FLU NEWS: The Southern News did its usual excellent job bringing closer to home a national story, this time on the flu vaccine, both for this winter's season and the concerns for the bird flu (link). It goes over risk groups, whether we should be concerned right now about the bird flu that's all over the news right now, and what to do to protect yourself against the flu this year.

PHISHING HITS HOME: This week in the Buzz Box, I received a pair of E-mails purporting to be from People's warning me that my card information had been compromised and to log in to the site. While the URL in the E-mail, as written out, pointed to a log-in page on the site (one that still works, but has largely been replaced with their home page log-in), the link itself takes you to another Web site altogether, and if you log in, you're giving your information away to a less than reputable source. While I've seen these many times for PayPal, eBay, and national banks like Bank of America, this is the first time I've seen one targeted for People's users. As always, if you receive one of these E-mails, discard it - no bank will lose information like this and then ask you to use an online interface to fix it.

MYSPACE HELP: Are you a user of MySpace or Facebook? Or maybe you are shunning them for a particular reason? We here at The Buzz are working on an upcoming piece about them as they relate to privacy on the Internet. But we need your help. If you'd be willing to help us on this piece, please contact me at thebuzz@ctpost.com. As always, E-mail me if you know of anything buzzworthy going on as well - we look at all tips seriously.

DOWN THE HATCH: Citing the lack of substance to the event (and the resulting abuse of substances as well), Fairfield has pulled the plug on the annual 200 Nights event (link). For those counting: Luau, Clam Jam, Keg Races, 200 Nights - all gone. Replacing those events? There's Spam Jam in the Spring, but while the school's citing its efforts to create events that aren't alcohol fueled, even Spam Jam allows controlled drinking up at the townhouses for upperclassmen. With any luck, some sort of new traditions will eventually get established, but right now, they're falling faster than they're being created.

PROTEST AT YALE: Some Yale students were protesting this week the request by the school for a third-year grad student to leave for speaking less than perfect English, according to the student in question (link). The protest was over what some felt was discrimination against Chinese people, with some there stating that the student was on a scholarship there, and the scholarship terms were not breached, according to the student, who was informed it was the length of time that teachers were taking to correct the papers submitted.

WEATHER WOES: The rains had a direct effect on a few Fairfield students, who found their house uninhabitable after waves weakened the structure, which was supported on stilts (link). There is still a chance for house reconstruction, as the owner is given a grace period, but for now, the students are finding themselves without one of the best perks of being a senior: their own place to live off-campus.

SHUTTLE SCUTTLEBUTT: It seems like Quinnipiac's shuttles are frustrating some students lately (link). This isn't a new complaint, for Quinnipiac or in general; since The Buzz started an occasional complaint about campus shuttles has been their bizarre scheduling, finding themselves one behind the other instead of spaced out, etc. One thing The Buzz is learned is it's not easy to schedule shuttles, and Quinnipiac's students were encouraged by shuttle operators to just use a little patience.

REACTION OVER NOISE: Last week's item on the noise levels and parties at Fairfield Beach brought a fairly quick reaction from the U (link). Fairfield's president, Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, responded at a press conference that many at the university think beach issues have continued to decline, based on a reduced number of letters received, the overall maintenance of a lower headcount at the beach, and students in general being more behaved. In the same press conference von Arx also noted the potential for a new dorm. A new dorm has been on the 10-year Master Plan of the school for years now, but it was the opinion of many for a time that it was unlikely to be built. However, the increased population at the school may necessitate another undergrad dorm.

What's the buzz on your campus? E-mail me at thebuzz@ctpost.com

NOTE: Since we're a bit behind schedule this week, EnterTech will show up on Sunday or Monday this week.

Want video content to load it up with? Thousands of music videos are available, and you can also download 5 different TV shows. Each video, including the TV programs, are $1.99 each, so when you do the math it's $45 for a season of Desperate Housewives or Lost, approximately what a DVD set would cost, but you can take it anywhere with you. Yes, they're commercial free, and yes, they're probably a monster download. But you've got all that space to fill now, don't you?

I apologize to my readers for what may seem like an Apple Worship entry, but I've been an iPod lover for quite some time now. When a major new version comes out, I hock my old one off on a friend who's been wanting one to cover part of the cost of the new one. While I'm not an early adopter by any means, I live by my iPod, and jump at each new improvement. It's sad when I already have a buyer lined up for my old one and they just introduced it today! :)

Check it out here (link).