Nick Colello ’05 let out a sigh of relief last Friday when he was “saved by the ring” of a cell phone after his professor asked a tricky question in class.
Despite Colello’s good fortune, many professors and students at Fairfield let out daily sighs of frustration from the growing cellular disruptions.
“I do find a phone ringing in the classroom to be extremely disruptive,” said Professor Ruth Anne Baumgartner of the English department. “No one, including me, seems to be able to ignore it. It breaks the class’s concentration.”
Baumgartner said cellular interruptions bother both professors and students.
“Yeah, sometimes it’s funny when a cell phone rings or Nextel bleeps,” said Chris Martin ’07. “But it’s also really annoying if we’re in the middle of an important review or test.”
“Cell phones going off are as much an affront to one’s fellow students as to a professor,” said Dr. Jesus Escobar, professor of art history.
Not only are cell phone rings, beeps and Nextel ‘bleeps’ annoying interruptions, they also can transmit information, enabling students to cheat. Dean of Students Mark Reed has received multiple suggestions for a policy to be included in the student handbook.
“To this date, no such policy has been developed, but I am open to considering the benefits or drawbacks to it,” said Reed.
Academic Vice President Orin Grossman recently talked to other Jesuit colleges about policies regarding cell phones. Although Fairfield and the other colleges do not have policies yet, most have expressed their aggravation.
“I just taught a class last semester, and we had a discussion in class. All the students understood that it was rude to have the phone on,” said Grossman. “I would like to think that if a professor brings it up with the class, that most would agree it is rude to leave them on.”
Many professors have taken matters into their own hands, and have already created personal polices and rules against cell phones.
For example, Professor Javier Campos of the modern language department has a rule in his syllabus that says, “Please do not use cell phones and turn off your cell, if you have one, in classes because it disturbs our class and other students as well.”
Reed is also up front with his students about cell phones in the classroom. He thinks that it is more a commonsense or courtesy issue than one of policy.
“For me, cell phones ringing in class are disruptions to the learning environment, and I set an expectation that it not happen,” said Reed.
History Professor William Abbott has noticed that students often interrupt his class when they leave and do not come back for several minutes.
“A number of my colleagues have expressed annoyance at this increased coming and going because it is disruptive,” said Abbott.
Although he isn’t sure whether students answer their cell phone vibrations or they do in fact need to use the restrooms, he’s ready to make a rule that prohibits leaving the classroom altogether.
Baumgartner hasn’t set a cell phone policy in her classroom yet, but last semester so many cell phones rang that she thinks she might have no choice. If she does, she will ask students to turn the ringers off and not to have conversations in class.
“So far I’ve used the let’s-all-stare-at-so-and-so approach, admittedly not a very mature response, but kind of fun,” said Baumgartner.
Many professors think this technique is the most successful in getting students to turn their cell phones off, because nothing seems worse to a college student than being embarrassed.
“I find that if I simply stop lecturing and everyone else turns to look, the student gets the point and the phone never goes off again,” said Escobar.
One student professed to the potential power of the practice.
“I never have my cell phone on because it’s horrible to have everyone looking at you when ‘O Solo Mio’ goes off,” laughed Beth Casciano ’06.
Even if Fairfield develops an official policy in the future, banning cell phones doesn’t seem likely.
Baumgartner hesitates to make her students turn off their cell phones completely because she has had distracted students in her classroom who thought their families might be trying to reach them in the midst of a family emergency.
“What guides all these behavioral policies, after all, is the intention that the class activity not be disturbed, not that the individual student be constrained in a particular way,” said Baumgartner.
Grossman felt the same way when he taught a class where a student requested permission to keep his cell phone on because a close relative was undergoing surgery.
“Of course that seemed reasonable to me,” said Grossman.
Even though professors at Fairfield may permit cell phone calls under special circumstances, students must remember someday they will leave college and have a job, where they must always be careful and respectful.
“I understand that the new technology changes the way we live, but surely, if you are in a meeting in your future job with your boss, you will not use your phone to talk to your mom, boyfriend, girlfriend or your grandmother to tell them when you are coming home,” said Campos. “Maybe, your future boss would tell you – like the popular TV program ‘The Apprentice’ – ‘You are fired.'”
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