Annabelle de St. MauriceBeginning next year, the university plans to charge all students living on campus approximately $100 extra in room-and-board for mandatory telephone service. This change is an intrusion on our right to choose for ourselves what services we would like to purchase.
A letter sent home to parents explains that the decision to include the cost of a phone in every room was based on a student referendum in which students overwhelmingly supported the change. This statement is misleading and a misrepresentation of student opinion. The ‘referendum’ consisted of a poorly publicized vote in Wohl Center on the South 40, where only 10 percent of students responded. While 80 percent of responding students voted yes, a 10 percent response rate is not enough to conclude overwhelming support.
Additionally, this polling method neglected students living in Small Group Housing, Small Houses 9 & 10, and Millbrook Apartments, which will also be affected by this change.
Until very recently, students only had two options. They could either grit their teeth and pay for WU phone service, or they could brave college without a phone. Now, however, students have a third option: cell phones.
In recent years, many students have opted to purchase cell phones instead of paying for WU telephone service. There are many reasons for this. WU phone service, at over $30 per month for just a dial tone, is expensive. The long distance charges of 8.5 cents per minute are more costly than most phone cards and the many plans available through alternative long distance carriers.
Students all across the nation have been moving toward this option in droves because it is cheaper, easier, and more convenient. Students with cell phones do not have to purchase phone cards, nor do they have to enter seven-digit authorization codes to complete their calls. In fact, most cell phone plans today include free long distance, so students don’t have to worry about whether they’re calling Joe in St. Louis or Mom in L.A.
Because WU students are turning to cell phones, WU is losing revenue from its phone service. As of July this year, Bill Orrick of Telephone Services said that only about 50 percent of the 3,600 on-campus residents have the WU plan, down from 80 percent five years ago. It is not acceptable, however, for an institution to respond to this kind of challenge by simply mandating that everyone purchase a phone plan. This approach has been taken several times by WU, most notably with the introduction of mandatory meal plans and health fees in recent years.
The university argues that phone service will be cheaper for everyone this way ($100 dollars instead of the more than $200 dollars currently). However, $100 dollars is much more than the $0 that people without WU phone service currently spend. Under this plan, those who would otherwise choose not to have the WU phone service are subsidizing the cost for others who do want it. If students would rather pay the charge in one lump sum (instead of a monthly bill), it would be easy for WU Telephone Services to simply bill student accounting without forcing the option on students who do not want it.
One explanation given is that the administration and professors were having a hard time contacting students because so many have unlisted cell-phones. However, all students are provided with a WU e-mail account which is more than adequate for contacting students.
If the university were to insist that it be able to contact every student by telephone, one possible solution would be to require students to register their cell phone numbers. That way, if a student chose not to purchase the WU phone service, she could simply provide a cell phone number where she can be reached. This solution is more satisfactory because it allows students some degree of flexibility while ensuring that the university has a means to reach her.
It is unfortunate that the university chose to simply mandate that everyone purchase the WU plan. When the school realized it was losing money, it could have focused on economic strategies to make WU phone service more attractive, such as lowering the cost of a dial tone or the long distance rate. In an age where so many options for communication exist, WU should focus on developing newer and better options for students rather than forcing older and less convenient ones upon us.