Mandatory Cell Phones on Campus? Hmm...

Heres an interesting article that I found while I was browsing Drudge Report -- apparently, one university (Montclair State) is making it mandatory that you must buy their cell phone when you enter their college. This 'school phone', which is Sprint operated, costs $420 a year and is required for all students on the campus to have. You cannot talk long to your friends or family on the device (it only comes with 50 talking minutes a month), although it comes with unlimited text messaging, along with "unlimited campus-based data usage, and student activated emergency GPS tracking".

This is an interesting idea, to say the least. To be positive, I can see where it would be useful. One of the students mentioned in the article state that you can check your email on the thing; another student says that he feels comfortable with it. Heck, you can even call home sometimes to ask your parents for more money, as the article jokingly states.

Anyway, heres what the cell looks like:

It's sounds like a cool idea.

Except for the fact that it costs FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY BUCKS.

420 * 4 = another $1680 that you have to pay Sprint (according to the article, the university gets no take in this) just to go to school. A fee that goes right to a corporation! Great!

If this wasn't mandatory, it would be a great idea. The phone itself (and all it's school specific features) would be a good deal to those students that don't already have their own cell. If the phone was free to students (like it is over at Farleigh Dickinson University) it would be a good deal. For those that already have a chosen Razr by their side, this is not a good deal.

The phone also has GPS (although it's student activated) which can be used for emergencies. Again, a nice feature, as long as they don't make it mandatory to have the GPS tracking always on. Then we start having some major privacy issues (I don't want the school to know my whereabouts all the time!)

If Iowa State starts a program like this, I wouldn't like it at all. (But they are not, so no big worry right now). Colleges should try to keep the cost down for their students (lower costs mean more paying kids, you know), and adding fees going to a third party doesn't help out that much. But I guess it's up to the students going to the school to decide if they like this plan or not.