It’s a rare occurrence to go to class and not have a cell phone ring mid-lecture. “I would always let it slide and try to ignore the ringing,” said professor of psychology Mykos Theophilia. “But after a recent incident in which a student’s phone went off blasting the lyrics of N.W.A.’s ‘A Bitch is a Bitch’ in the middle of one of my lectures about the media’s effect on women, I had had it.”
After prolonged struggles with the interruptions from cell phones, laptops, and mp3 players, the University at Buffalo has officially placed a ban on any such devices within the confines of its classrooms.
The ban of such devices goes into effect April 10. Consequences will range from expulsion from class to fines of up to $350. UB will be the first SUNY campus to enforce the rule, but by the looks of it, it is soon to be enforced in the classrooms statewide.
“For the past few years, I’ve been receiving complaints about the interruptions and distractions resulting from various technological devices during class sessions,” said Brian Wiegand, head executive of UB’s Faculty Senate. “The complaints are not only coming from professors, but from students as well.”
While cell phones, mp3 players, and laptops will be allowed on campus, there will be soundproof bins at the entrance of every classroom which students will have to place all technological belongings in before entering.
Wiegand said the estimated cost for installing these bins in all classrooms will be around $2 million. Students can expect to see their student fees increase at the start of next semester by $100 to offset the costs.
“I think it’s completely unfair and unjust,” said sophomore exercise science major Kimberly Payne. “I keep all of my notes on my laptop. It’s my preference, and it is in no way a hindrance to anyone in the classroom.”
While the use of laptops are often a means of note-taking for many students, UB’s administration felt it necessary to ban them as well because more and more professors have been noticing students playing games, using AIM, and visiting MySpace and Facebook during class hours.
Frank Jacobs, a senior communication major, agrees with the ban. “We had assigned seats in my Communication Ethics class, and I happened to be placed behind an avid Internet poker player. The whole semester I watched the kid’s money go down the drain, along with my grade.”
The installation of all of the bins isn’t expected to be completed until fall semester of 2006; however, the ban goes into effect immediately. Any student caught with such devices will be held accountable and fined.
Since bins will not be installed in all classrooms by the end of the semester, Wiegand suggests that students simply do not bring any such items to campus or find suitable storage for them while in classes. “It will be like a dry run for next year.”
There have been some issues of concern brought up about the silent bins. It may be an easy deposit and retrieval of items for small classrooms, but what about lecture halls? Students don’t want to wait in line forever to shuffle through a multitude of cell phones to find theirs. The fear of theft is also a big concern.
Wiegand said that all the kinks will be worked out before the installation begins. “The board understands that it is a necessity that the items are easily accessible to solely the owner.”
Wiegand described UB as a guinea pig for the new program, saying that success here will translate into a statewide use of such bins. “They want to test it out in one school for a while to get a feel for its efficiency before spending the money to install it in all the SUNY schools and discovering there is a problem.”
Despite mixed reactions from UB students, there doesn’t seem to be much they can do at this point. And if the plan gains SUNY acceptance, any hopes of the program ending will likely be quashed.
Sophomore English major Chris Hatchett is one of the many students infuriated both by the new rule and the lack of student input into it. “I haven’t heard anything about this, and now they are just going to enforce it as a rule without even running it by the students? We’re adults, we’re paying to go to this institute, and we have rights. It just seems completely unfair.”
Wiegand dismissed claims that students have no voice in the process, noting that they can contact the Student Response Center with any questions or comments they have about the new policy. “Besides,” he said, “students are only here for four years. They’ll complain for a while, but in a few year’s time, they’ll never know what they’re missing.”
