  We study the propagation of a probe massless nonminimally coupled scalar
field in a fixed gravitational background of a cloud of strings in (2+1)
dimensions. We obtain exact analytical expressions for the reflection
coefficient, the absorption cross section, the decay rate as well as the
quasinormal frequencies. The impact of the nonminimal coupling is investigated
in detail. Our results show that Universality is not respected in general, and
that scalar perturbations are stable.
