Students are required to purchase a phone with a GPS chip through the university.
Quote(s): The cost: $420 a year for a base plan which is bundled into the tuition bill.
It includes just 50 peak voice minutes a month, but unlimited text messaging to any carrier, unlimited campus-based data usage, and student activated emergency GPS tracking.
“What it does is allow students to have an extra pair or group of people watching over them when they’re going from one location to another,” Montclair Police Department Chief Paul Cell said.
What say you? Does the school have the obligation to make you pay for a tracking device (student triggered).
I had to work my way through school and so did my friends. We would have gone apoplectic over this. My vote would be somewhere between “hell no” and “up yours”.
I don’t know. On the one hand, it would be more useful to me than the extra cost they’re tacking on for the new arena and football stadium that for now only exist in 3D renderings – I’ve never gone to a game here, and I’m not likely to come back for one after I leave. On the other hand, I’m not sure I trust the “student activated” portion of the GPS system. Colleges used to be in the parenting business, and they’ve moved away from that – I’d like to think for a reason.
The idea of paying to have someone keep tabs on me as an adult pisses me off. It would be impractical at my school anyways - many students, myself included, commute to class.
That seems really out of bounds especially for a college. I don’t get the overall reasoning. I guess if that was the one true college for me throughout all eternity, I would just pay for the phone, flush it, and get another one (maybe I could call in a missing person’s report for myself in a sewer along the way).
Seems to me like an over-the-top CYA reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings, and they are making the students pay for it. It’ll be interesting to see if this becomes a trend other colleges (besides Farleigh Dickinson) adopt, or if it just quietly goes away.
Ditto, I’d probably just leave it at home, probably still in the box. Or, I suppose to at least get my monies worth, I’d use it, but when not in use, it would stay in a Faraday bag. I know I know, no incoming calls, but whatever, I’d probably just have a regular phone as well.
Oh boy would I be pissed off. It probably wouldn’t be enough to make me leave if I was a current student, but if I was considering it as a potential incoming freshman, I’d say forget it. I expect to be required to pay for tuition and some other ridiculous extras (‘activity fees’ and whatnot). Being required to pay them to be able to keep tabs on me? Hell no.
We’ve got a ton of crazy programs at my school but they’re all approved by the student government board. If the students don’t want it, they won’t approve it. Democracy in action.
I can see offering something like that to students who don’t have a cell phone. I used mine on campus like crazy; it’s useful for tracking people down and such. And I can see the student-activated (as long as that’s all it is) GPS in case a student ends up in trouble.
But I don’t think it should be a requirement. The vast majority of students already have cell phones and I see no reason why a student should be required to have two. Perhaps the college could negotiate a deal with a cell provider to offer service at a discount. Otherwise, yeah, it’s a deal-breaker.
Whoo, boy, would this blow up if anyone tried this on my campus. Not that mine is special in this regard, just that I feel like I can speak for it. Try this, too- I can’t switch to their plan, because I’m tied into a contract with my current cell phone provider, as I suspect nearly every single student on campus is. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for two phones.
I have no problem with offering this to students. It’s a pricey plan for the minutes, but if you made a conscious effort to use text messaging whenever possible and talk nights and weekends only, a few people might take it- it’s way cheaper than a regular cell phone. But mandatory? That’s extortive.
Making this program compulsory is fucked up. I think it’s actually a good option to have available, but students shouldn’t be required to participate.
This discussion points out a few other features the plan provides:
Bolding mine.
Yeah, that’s what we need in college classrooms—more fucking students with their cellphones turned on. Jesus H. Christ! There’s already a perfectly good system in place for letting your prof know if you don’t understand something. Put your goddamn hand in the air and ask, or see the prof during office hours.
My response too would be “hell no, up yours.” I would seriously consider changing colleges. The gall of choosing my cellphone for me, the crappy actual plan, the big brother GPS tracking system. Somebody had a serious brain fart with this one. Hmm this is New Jersey, for some reason I was expecting Florida.