December 19, 2008
New Phone Fee Could Cost Colleges $450-Million
The extensive web of telephone services om most campuses could soon cost the average college or university an extra $100,000 per year—and cost higher education in general hundreds of millions—because of a proposed change to a federally-regulated service fee.
On Dec. 11 the American Council on Education sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission protesting a change in something called the “universal service fund.” The fund, run by the FCC, is used to subsidize service in rural and low-income areas, providing customers affordable rates.
The change, proposed by telecoms AT&T and Verizon, would charge institutions 85 cents per assigned telephone number, according to an earlier letter drafted by the council. Previously, colleges were charged fees using a formula based on their revenues. The Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education has estimated that, with the new fee-per-phone number plan, higher education’s contribution to the fund would jump from $60-million each year to approximately $450-million. The average college or university would pay about $100,000 annually.
Ada Meloy, general counsel for the American Council on Education, said the increased charges would be especially difficult for colleges and universities to handle in the face of budget cuts brought on by tough economic conditions.
“There are certainly colleges that are severely taxed financially, and to impose such a large increase in their expense for this service could put someone over the edge,” Ms. Meloy said in an interview with The Chronicle. Most colleges would probably have the means to pay for the increase, she said, “but it might mean that money has to be taken from other purposes that are really more beneficial to the institutions and their students.
In response to these concerns, AT&T has suggested that the FCC set up a program that would allow colleges that qualify for exemption to receive reimbursement later on. The council, however, has said this approach would create an administrative burden. It has requested the FCC delay making any changes until they can be further reviewed. —Caitlin Moran
Posted on Friday December 19, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: Music Industry Will Stop Suing Groups of Students
Next: Did Company Use Fake Facebook Groups to Market to Students?
You might find more colleges changing to VoIP the way the University at Buffalo is doing right now. We are faced with severe budget cuts here in New York, and proposing additional fees on already strapped higher education simply drains resources intended to provide an education for the students.
— Denice Szafran Dec 19, 05:51 PM #
With email, what faculty members really need phones anyway?
— CBM Dec 21, 04:16 AM #
I agree with CBM, my phone gets hardly any use at all, mostly from callers who are technophobes asking for printed brochures (yikes! these are the same people who want printed course catalogs) or asking questions that are already answered online at the department website in the FAQ section (and accessible from a computer terminal at their public library).
It’s 2009 and everyone should join the Internet; getting rid of faculty phones is just the kick in the pants they need in these economic times. Show me a faculty member without a personal cellphone for outgoing calls and I’ll introduce another call for a kick in the pants. I even give out my number for incoming cell calls, making note that its my own cell, and students do NOT abuse the privilege, perhaps knowing I pay for each call past my limit.
As for the typical content on my answering machine, it’s either students on intermittent cell connections giving long meandering preambles to a breathless “call me at” with a phone number read much too fast to understand, or it’s a student who lives 5 blocks away wanting a call returned to a long distance cellphone number 5 states away.
I used to be chair of my department, so I remember how colossally expensive faculty phones are. Get rid of them!!! (Ask your own chair the annual cost of faculty landline phones and then calculate the impact on your own travel budget!)
— sc Jan 5, 08:47 AM #
Proposing to present to faculty members that they should use their personal phones for business without being compensated is not a good business plan. I believe that it is not fair to the individual’s who pay for their personal phone service to be expected to utilize these personal devices to subsidize a state agency. Talk about “tough economic times”, when state employees are forced into paying for services that should be part of a service provided to them so that they can do their primary function: TEACH.
Spreading the financial burden out to those who are statistically under paid as it is seems short sighted and selfish.
Some may choose to go this route, that is utilizing their personal cell phone for communication with students, staff and other faculty members. Email, IP telephony, Chat and other computer/internet based systems could be part of a solution. However, that needs to be planned for, built and maintained as a business integrated model by the institution not the individual employees.
— KN Jan 5, 11:52 AM #