March 11, 2008
Ordering Students to Register for Text-Message Alerts
Boston — Emergency text-messaging systems are now common on college campuses, but in most cases students sign up for the notifications voluntarily.
That has to change, Margaret A. Jablonski told a roomful of administrators here.
“We’re in a bind about when do you determine that you’re going to make giving the cellphone information mandatory,” said Ms. Jablonski, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There only 5,000 students — less than a fifth of the population — subscribed to the alerts.
But soon Chapel Hill will ask all students for their cellphone numbers during registration. “It’s something we have to just bite the bullet and do,” Ms. Jablonski said.
Sara Lipka | Posted on Tuesday March 11, 2008 | PermalinkComments
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What if the student doesntg have a cell phone? Is Big Brother University — or rather — Parent Ckindergarten, not College—University going to require them to buy cell phones? What if a student refueses?
— Joseph F Foster Mar 12, 08:23 AM #
While I agree with commenter # 1 that this may be an issue, as a person who has had to deal with cell phones in the classroom, I can tell you I wish more students did refuse to have them!
— TDD Mar 12, 03:51 PM #
We ask our students to turn their cell phones off during class, and yet here, too, a text messaging system is the number one plan for getting the word out in a crisis situation. Hmmmm.
— WCS Mar 12, 04:17 PM #
Reality Check (RC): Cell Phones are not going anywhere.
RC: If anything technology will make it easier to have them.
RC: If safety means being Big Brother University, then I can live with that if it will save a life. I can get over name calling but death is hard to “get over”.
RC: Tell your class to turn off ringers and set to vibrate.
RC: Some tragedies happen too fast to get an alert out. Union University didn’t have time before the tornado hit.
RC: It has established itself as a “sign of our times”.
Yeah, reality bites, huh?
— vlw Mar 12, 04:50 PM #
A college student who doesn’t have a cell phone? Never met such a creature.
— wsc Mar 12, 04:55 PM #
Texting is the best way to reach students in a timely way. Students are never far from their phones. Unfortunately, the times we are living in make this a critical feature of any school’s student safety plan.
— Val Mar 12, 05:24 PM #
I repeat, and if a student refuses? Do they expell him for not having his cell phone turned on? Or do they deny him admission for refusal to divulge his cell phone number?
Are you really willing to have a totalitarian state/university just to possibly save one life? Just how close to having the Sicherheitsdienst run universities do we want to get?
— Joseph F Foster Mar 12, 07:47 PM #
I do not hand out my cell phone number as a public contact and would flat out refuse the request to do so. I would assume that students have the right to keep theirs private as well, regardless of the wishes of University administrators.
I am just cynical enough to wonder whether, hidden in this admirable desire to protect students from danger, is a hint of CYA over questions of who was notified when and how in campus emergencies…
— Catalin Dunnett Mar 12, 08:54 PM #
I sympathize with JJF and similarly inclined responders indignant at this trampling of their right to be killed without warning. How about this compromise: expend some energy and indignation advocating for exceptions to state laws across the nation that make colleges and universities potentially liable when (not if) students are again shot on campus.
I am perhaps more cynical than CD. While I am sure that there is genuine concern over student, faculty and staff safety, there is also cold-eyed appreciation that institutions are potentially liable when these events occur.
Perhaps JJF will be the first to sign a legally binding “hold harmless” agreement: “If I am killed on campus after having refused to participate in a text message notification scheme, neither I, my parents, spouse, or estate can file suit for wrongful death or contributory negligence in that death.”
— another view Mar 12, 10:44 PM #
Well I’ve met plenty who don’t have cell phones. I’ve met even more, and have even been one until recently, who did not have text messaging. And even though I have had a cell phone for many years, I made a special point of never giving out the number to organizations, including employers and schools, who can and do sell that information to third parties.
— Carlo Mar 13, 10:52 AM #
This is silly, the big brother thing is crap (get rid of google and credit cards if you are that worried. The world we live in requires U’s to be able to reach people in emergencies whatever they may be. If it saves a life it is worth it (whether its your friend, you are a brother or sister or its your child)
— fred Mar 13, 10:56 AM #
Bigger problem may be who is liable if technology fails. My cell phone often does not not get my attention until hours after a text message arrives. Maybe it’s operator error on my part or something else but in any case the system is not perfect! Let’s not put all our notification eggs in one basket.
— David Mar 17, 12:13 PM #