By Kate Augusto

From pets to cell phones, anything, it seems, can be insured today. But for students, the only valuable insurance other than health insurance is personal property insurance, according to Brian Burns, director of Risk Management ‘ Assistant University Counsel.

“Traditionally, the valuable insurance for students is property insurance in case something gets lost or is stolen from your dorm room,” Burns said. “College Student Insurance (CSI) is the company that Northeastern tells students about during orientation and move-in weekend,”

CSI covers damages in residence halls from fire, water, wind, or accidents.

“Students are typically worried about their textbooks, cell phones, iPods and laptops,” said Yubi Alvarez, director of student services at CSI.

Alvarez said CSI typically averages 600 to 800 customers from Northeastern annually.

Riane Kane, a middler sociology major, does not have personal property insurance, but said he thinks it’s a good idea, “especially for students in Boston because you hear a lot about [property getting stolen] and students can’t afford to get screwed out of [their stuff] … The school could even make [having] it automatic, [by adding] it to our tuition.”

Northeastern won’t usually replace stolen or damaged personal student property except under special circumstances. For example, students were compensated last year when students on the fourth floor of Melvin Hall left a window open during winter damaging the belongings of students of the first, second and third floor [with water].

“We made the decision that it wasn’t the fault of the first, second and third floor and because of the intrusiveness of the situation we covered [their losses] but since the students on the fourth floor were responsible, we decided not to cover [theirs],” Burns said.

Burns said most other insurance is not applicable to Northeastern students besides health insurance, which every student is required to have.

“What we’re here for is to provide an education. [Northeastern’s] not really geared toward providing insurance,” Burns said.

However, Burns said insurance companies have been trying to solicit him to promote identity theft insurance.

Brittney Bazek, a junior philosophy major, said she thinks this type of insurance would be useful for students who use credit cards.

“Everyone buys things online now