Pests on Campus: What you need to tell your student about lice and bed bugs

Winter is the time when lice and bed bug infestations start to make their appearance on college campuses. Not only are more people exposed to these pests while they travel for the holidays, but lice in particular seem to thrive when students start sharing hats, scarves, and jackets. While bed bugs and lice certainly have what one Residential Life veteran calls the “yuck factor” the good news, if you can call it that, is that these pests do not vector diseases and there are plenty of ways to get rid of them.

Lice can be treated with over the counter shampoos and sprays, and a complete laundering of all fabrics (clothing and bedding) in hot water and a hot dryer. Bed bugs, however require heat treatments of the affected rooms and everything in them by a professional exterminator.

Students should notify staff as soon as possible if they suspect bed bug infestations because they can easily spread from one room to another on clothing. In fact, when students travel, they should also inspect hotel rooms and hostels for bed bugs and lice to avoid bringing them home with them. Complete information and pictures to help identify these creeps is available at these Centers for Disease Control (CDC) websites.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/


Other Pests
Of course, prevention is the most effective way to avoid infestation of anything from insects to rodents, but college students are not necessarily known for their outstanding housekeeping skills. Students who leave food and other attractive items out for any length of time are sure to become magnets for pests. Keeping rooms and apartments clean, and free from clutter and open food items is the best prevention. Also, students who live on ground floor levels should keep doors and windows closed and pay close attention to any pests they see. Generally, if there’s one cockroach or ant, there’s a whole family somewhere nearby and the student should immediately contact staff for abatement.

Getting "Interview Ready" Over Winter Break

Winter break is a great time to help your student get interview ready. Internship and career fairs are often held in January through March on college campuses, so winter break is a great time to make sure your student has everything they need to make a good impression. 

Suggest that they:

• Edit their resume to adjust GPA and add work experiences and activities from the fall semester
• Scour social media and online profiles for any questionable material
• Make sure that they have plenty of resume paper and thank you notes for those impromptu meetings with recruiters. Some students also print business cards that contain their contact information and a brief profile
• Evaluate their interview wardrobe and purchase any additional items. Dark suits are a go-to choice, but don't forget items like shoes, belts, and dress socks or tights
• Some interviews and company interest sessions will require business casual clothing such as khakis, a white, off-white, or pastel button down, or a polo style pullover shirt
• Business casual for young women may include anything from slacks and a cardigan set to a simple sheath dress. When in doubt, browse Pinterest for some ideas and choose conservative over flashy
• More essentials include: A good haircut, a manicure set, a lint roller, and of course some interview coaching from the college's career services staff

Why College Students Should File a FAFSA Every Year

I always encourage students and parents to file a FAFSA each year even if the student is never awarded any grants or work study, because having a completed FAFSA and Student Aid Report is like having an insurance policy or a line of credit. Unless students and their parents have saved the full cash price of attending college before the student starts college, there’s always the possibility that a financial crisis will arise that will require a student loan. Over the years I have seen even well-off families struggle through all kinds of financial emergencies such as; natural disasters, divorce, serious illnesses, accidents, job losses, and the list goes on and on. Having a student aid award, even if it only contains loans, will allow the student to stay in school during a short term crisis and leaves one less thing for parents to worry about.

If you do find yourself in a financial crisis, but haven’t completed the FAFSA it is almost never too late to file (click the link below) but keep in mind that it can take up to several weeks to process before the student can expect to see an aid report. Additionally, some aid is awarded on a first come first served basis and the deadlines for state and institutional aid are usually in the spring or summer. If, after the FAFSA is filed, your family’s financial situation or income changes due to a job loss, marriage, divorce or separation, medical expenses etc. you should set up an appointment with a financial aid counselor at the student’s college to have a review or “judgment review” to see if the student’s aid may be increased in light of the family’s current financial situation.

To view the deadlines for each academic year, click HERE

Surviving Winter Break with Your College Student

copyright 2014 Francesca Gragg 

Tips For Fabulous Finals Week Care Packages

Finals week is a popular time for parents to send care packages to students.  There are a number of online merchants who will send basic care packages to your student and a Google search will turn up dozens of them offering various packages in various price ranges. Most students, however, prefer the personal touch and sending a care package is not difficult if you follow these tips.

1. If you send baked goods, try to send soft items such as unfrosted cakes or cupcakes, muffins, brownies, or bar cookies. *Cookies that are crisp will turn into crumbs during shipment.
2. If you are sending a cake, brownies/ bars, cupcakes or muffins, simply bake it in the pan (the recyclable aluminum or non-stick varieties work well and come with a cover) and send the entire pan uncut to preserve freshness. This method also works well with rice crispy treats or other bars that do not require refrigeration. 
3. I'm also a fan of the gingerbread house kits available in stores during the holidays. No, it's not like a homemade gingerbread house, but it's a fun and yummy distraction from the stress of studying for final exams.
4. Send your child a specialty item from your hometown or something else he can’t get on campus. You may also consider sending items that are expensive for him to purchase himself. Even “K-cups” can add up if he uses more than one or two per day.
5. Send a pizza party from the internet. Most national pizza delivery chains (think Pizza Hut etc) and many local ones, offer online ordering of pizzas, snacks and drinks. Average cost for a large pizza, wings, and drinks for a party of 4-6 is $40.00 plus tip. Be sure to make arrangements with your child in advance so he knows when the party will arrive and can invite his friends.
6. * Commuting students love care packages too! A gift basket of favorite snacks or gift cards to shops or restaurants on or near campus left outside your commuting student’s bedroom door says, “I love you” and is just as comforting to a student living at home too! the gift cards will be welcome while he's studying on campus instead of at home.

7. I'm a big fan of the pre-paid priority boxes from the USPS. Not only are they generally a good size for a care package, they are automatically tracked so you know when the package arrives. 

Finding the Off-Campus Housing Fit

Thanksgiving break is an ideal time to discuss your college student's plans for living arrangements for the next academic year. So, I'm excited to present this guest blog post by Jackie Schwirian. Jackie is a Leasing Manager at one of the large, college student-focused apartment complexes in Stillwater, and she has some valuable insights to share with students and parents before they seek out off-campus housing.

While college life is filled with many new experiences for students, it’s also filled with many new responsibilities and decisions. For parents of college students, helping to choose a safe, reliable, and value-worthy off-campus home for their son/daughter to live can be a daunting process filled with many obstacles and hidden costs.

Attracted to Cheap

When students focus on “cheap,” safety and reliability are often left out-of-focus, leaving the student in disarray when problems arise. Before parents and their son/daughter decide on an apartment, the following questions should be considered:

• What happens when a landlord is not available if a maintenance problem arises?
• What if the landlord repeatedly comes into the apartment unannounced?
• What if the heating bill is well over your allotted budget for the winter months?
• What happens if the roommate(s) refuse to share the cost of the internet and cable TV bills?
• What if the roommate(s) refuse to pay his/her share of the rent?

Finding the Off-Campus Housing Fit

Safety and reliability are the most important, but helping your son/daughter find an apartment (and community) that fits their lifestyle are just as important. For example, some apartments cater to the full-time student with a heavy class load by offering study rooms; some do not. If specific housing options are not listed on the apartment’s website, students and their parent(s) could find a benefit to browsing social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get an idea of what residents and leasing professionals are sharing about the apartment and community.

Wake-up Call

While each apartment is different, the management responsible for leasing the apartment(s)/property will likely stay the same. Oftentimes, websites and leasing professionals omit hidden costs such as utility charges, which some tenants wouldn’t necessarily consider when calculating the overall leasing costs.  Have your student take time to read the lease carefully and ask the leasing agent to go over the lease with your student. Oftentimes students come up with valuable questions when the lease is reviewed in detail with the leasing agent. 

• Before your son or daughter hears the words “sign here,” take time to research the safety, reliability, and convenience of an apartment community to maximize your student’s experience and put you and your student at ease with the next off-campus housing decision.

-Jackie Schwirian, Leasing & Marketing Manager, The Reserve on Perkins 

Help Your Student Avoid Electronic Distractions in Class

There’s a name for students who try to hide their phones in their laps while they attend class- “crotchgazers”. You know how annoying it is when you’re trying to have a family meal or just speak to your child without the interruptions of constant texting or Tweeting. If you’re like me, there’s nothing more irritating than having your child half-heartedly answer your questions while he stares at the cell phone in his lap. Now, imagine how maddening it is for a professor trying to communicate with 25, 75 or 205 crotchgazers in a classroom.

One disadvantage to college students being constantly connected is that they’re well, constantly connected. That means that even while students are physically in class and honestly trying to learn, they are also incessantly being vibrated away from the work at hand. In many ways it’s not their fault, it's ours. Parents have been known to panic if we don’t hear from them for a couple of days, so they know that if they don’t reply to us with at least an “ok” or even a “k” we just might freak out and call the campus police to conduct a welfare check on them.

Today’s college students feel compelled to check and reply to texts, Tweets, Facebook posts and the like, so cell phones themselves, the very same magical device we all rely on to keep us connected are also the same devices that keep students distracted and damage their ability to fully engage in class and learning. While almost every college or certainly every individual professor has policies against the use of electronics in the classroom, the problems persist. Students know that if they’re careful enough, they can fly under the professor’s radar, but at what cost? Students who allow themselves to become distracted by every chirp or vibration of their phone are not only wasting the money they spent to be in the class, they are cheating themselves out of learning for something they can easily access during the other 20 hours every day in which the are not in a classroom. 

The best advice you can give your student on this subject is to suggest he turn off his phone while in class and catch up with friends, and you too, once he leaves the lecture hall.You can help out even more by asking him to tell you his class schedule and only contacting him when you know he is not in class.