Renters Insurance at Boise State University Improves the Student Experience

For Lynda Tieck, Senior Director for Housing and Residence Life at Boise State, partnering with GradGuard has been a clear win. "Something not having to be on our plate is a win," she says — and the GradGuard Renters Insurance Program has done exactly that.

The need became clear when risk management came to housing from the institution and let them know that students needed to have some sort of renter's insurance. That's where GradGuard came into play. Before the partnership, Tieck and her team were constantly negotiating with students about how to help them financially through losses — situations where it wasn't always clear whether the institution or the student was at fault, but where a loss had occurred all the same. GradGuard made that whole process easy.

For Tieck, the value goes beyond logistics. She believes the institution's role is to make students' experiences easier. "The hard thing should be going to class and learning," she says. The easier things should be learning life skills, having support, and being helped along the journey.

The student experience with the program has been excellent. Students see the value, use it easily, and are figuring out that having renters insurance is part of being an adult. Tieck is candid about why that matters — students don't always make the best decisions, and those decisions can be costly. Knowing the cost is low for students and that there's no cost to the institution is huge, because for the price to stay low for students, someone usually has to foot the bill.

Tieck would absolutely recommend the GradGuard Renters Insurance Program. As she puts it, it makes her life easier, it makes her team's life easier, and it makes the experience for the student that much better.