After reading last Friday’s editorial (“Telephone service should not be mandatory”), I was disappointed. My frustrations stem from treatment of this issue above others, and the fact that only the economic aspect of the plan was covered.
The editors of Student Life chose to write a negative editorial about a $100 “increase” in room fees, for a policy that will have positive, tangible effects for all. Imagine my confusion at the lack of an editorial denouncing the $1,400 tuition increase, whose positive impact is murky at best. Furthermore, if we want to look solely at economics, the case can still be made that the new telephone plan is financially sound.
The vast majority of the staff editorial dealt with economic issues, and in doing so ignored the social positives of the new plan.
First of all, the online directory and Ternion aren’t very accurate. The first thing you think of on move-in day when you return to St. Louis is not “I better go on WebSTAC and change my info so it’s right in Ternion.” Indeed, Ternion would have you believe that hundreds of students have the same voicemail, one that starts with “We’re sorry, the number you dialed…”
By having built-in, activated phone lines, Ternion can always be accurate with zero student effort. Advisors, faculty, and RAs would no longer have trouble contacting their students and residents. As an RA, I have had to personally relay a message from an academic advisor to one of my residents due to lack of a 314 number. It’s not unreasonable to ask that students have a 314 phone number, maybe even one that will be answered during “peak” hours.
A variety of campus entities, such as WUPD, EST, and RAs, will benefit from this plan. Someone who dials 5-5555 into their cell phone won’t get very far. With the universal system, when someone calls WUPD for help, the extension in their room allows the police to instantly know where that person is, as opposed to a cell phone. Additionally, RAs can meaningfully use the Meridian Mail system again to leave messages for all of their residents, instead of sending e-mails that are quickly deleted.
Before talking economics, let’s note the obvious fact that WU’s current telephone policy is an aberration. What other school doesn’t bundle the telephone line with your room? As it stands now, our status quo is everybody else’s exception to the rule.
One of the main points made in the staff editorial is that those who currently have only a cell phone will pay more under the new plan. However, the opposite argument can also be made. Unfortunately, a rising number of people have solely a long-distance area code cell phone, and it is unrealistic (and rude) to expect faculty to spend money out of their budgets to contact students who could very well be 50 feet away. In the end, those calls will add costs to departmental budgets, a cost that will be kindly reflected in our tuition bills each year.
The staff editorial noted that Telephone Services should have “[made] their service more attractive…[by] lowering the long distance rate.” It stated that, at “8.5 cents,” long distance is expensive. This would be an entirely valid point, had Telephone Services not already done just that. The long-distance fee has been 5 cents per minute all year.
Many freshmen only have cell phones. This is not because they hate land lines; it is because when you compare $30.50 for a land line or $35 for a cell phone, it’s a no-brainer. How many freshmen parents would have sprung for the cell phone if a land line was $100 a year, or about $12.50 a month? How many students were compelled by the need to call students who have only a long-distance area code cell phone?
From a purely mathematical standpoint, the plan is cheaper. Without going into detailed calculations, a person with their own land line will now save 60 percent; people sharing a line in doubles save about 20 percent; even four people who split one line with extensions in a Wheeler suite save a little bit.
Perhaps the strongest economic argument for the new plan is that the telephone will be included in the “cost of attendance” at WU. Students who are on financial aid are helped by the new plan. Right now, students on financial aid are paying for phone lines out of pocket. The new plan will allow FAFSA formulas and financial aid packages to accurately reflect the cost of a phone line that over half the student body still incurs every year, and provide more aid as a result.