Big Mobile Phone On Campus

from the they're-everywhere... dept

You just can't get away from them, it seems. More and more students have been showing up at college with mobile phones - and some universities have decided to ditch landlines entirely and just give their students mobile phones (often negotiating much better rates with carriers). However, some are finding it more expensive than landlines - and also noticing that many students already show up with mobile phones, making the provided ones redundant. At the same time, mobile phone use on campus is creating other unexpected issues. While there have been plenty of stories about kids cheating via mobile phone, professors say the bigger problem is kids letting their phones ring in class. Sometimes students will answer the phone right in the classroom, though often they run out of the room. One student even had the nerve to ask the professor what she missed while she was gone. Professors are fighting back, threatening to kick students out of class or lower their grades if their phones go off. What still amazes me is that people haven't shifted to a "default" vibrate mode. If I'm out of the house, my phone is in vibrate mode - and for etiquette's sake, I've always assumed that the rest of the world would figure this out as well - but with the increasing trends for special "ringtones", it seems we're going in the opposite direction. Another issue that some have with mobile phones on campus is that it's making it more difficult for some families to cut the tether between the parents and the student. They end up talking on the phone all the time - which presents a problem for both sides. The parents have more trouble "letting go" and the students have more trouble becoming independent and learning to deal with their own issues.