Student & Employee Renter/Property Insurance

When making preparations for beginning your education at the University of Tennessee, we feel it is important for students to fully consider all of their property insurance needs, whether they live on or off-campus. Occasionally, incidents such as fire, theft, flood, and other casualties occur that may result in damage or loss of a student’s property. The University of Tennessee does not carry insurance on residents’ belongings and will not pay to replace them. Therefore, we strongly encourage parents and students to make sure they are able to cover these unexpected costs or secure insurance protection on personal property.

The most frequent causes of student property loss are theft and accidental damage (dropping, spilling liquids, and similar events). If this were to happen, your out-of-pocket costs to repair or replace will generally run between $500 and $2,000. Some parents choose to rely on homeowner’s insurance to cover such losses. Homeowner’s policies provide some coverage but generally do not cover “breakage” or accidental damage, and usually have high deductibles that effectively leave most student property losses unrecoverable.

You can view a comparison of renter’s insurance to homeowners insurance here. For these reasons, students are strongly encouraged to have a personal property insurance policy for their belongings while living away from home

If you decide to purchase insurance, there are a wide variety of companies and policies available; so to help with your choice the University of Tennessee has made arrangements with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., one of our preferred brokers, to offer specialized student property protection insurance. Arthur J. Gallagher has created this property insurance plan especially for students living away from home, either on or off-campus. The coverage afforded by their policy is broader than most renter’s and homeowner’s insurance policies that are available in the insurance market. Special provisions and benefits of their policy include:

• Replacement Cost Valuation
• Flood and Earthquake Coverage
• Low Deductibles starting at $25
• Worldwide Coverage Territory
• Limited Identity Theft Expense Coverage
• Premiums as low as $69 annually

This coverage is also available for University of Tennessee employees who may find it beneficial especially for items like personal laptops or smart devices.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the Office of Risk Management or visit collegestudentinsurance.com/faq.aspx.

Please note that Liability Coverage is not automatically included. You will be given the option to purchase Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability Coverage to pay for damages for which the student is held legally liable (i.e. damages to the dorm room, damage to property of others, bodily injury of another party, etc.)

Download the College Student Renter’s Insurance brochure [PDF]