Student cell phone calls mean universities lose millions

AP ^ | June 23, 2002 | STEFANIE FRITH

[Cultural Jihad]

SACRAMENTO (AP) - For 20-year-old Sadie Gardere, it just makes sense to call home on her cell phone. Instead of paying 9 cents a minute through Sonoma State University, she pays a flat fee of $45 a month to call her family in the Bay area.

[Cultural Jihad]

Seems ludicrous to read that universities need the student's calling business to subsidize their housing and phone system. Technology moves along, and these things have a way of sorting themselves out in the long run.

[syriacus]

Technology moves along, and these things have a way of sorting themselves out in the long run.

Exactly.

[Abcdefg]

When I see some pimple faced kid driving Mom's car and yakking on a cell phone the entire trip, I think: "That must be a very important call. I'm glad we have cell phones." ;^)

[AM2000]

And 3 to 5 percent of the country's population has dropped standard telephone land lines for cell phone use only.

That 3-5% must be very fortunate. I've used wireless service from Voicestream and Spring and so far neither has been reliable enough where I can safely cancel my long-distance land-line service.

[JmyBryan]

Someday we may see an article on the way higher education costs so much less than it used to ...

[Willie Green]

Instead of paying 9 cents a minute through Sonoma State University, she pays a flat fee of $45 a month to call her family in the Bay area.

It's nice to keep in touch with the family,
But I don't think this gal's saving much unless she spends a LOT of time yakking on the dang phone.

My calculation comes to 8 hrs 20 min each month. (2 hrs 5 min per week) Seems a bit much.

[AM2000]

She's in college and she's a girl. It's never enough!

[Bandolier]

Student cell phone calls mean universities lose millions

It sucks to be innefficient in a capitalist marketplace.

I'm sure they'll come up with a government solution to this problem.

[Betteboop]

I seem to recall getting ripped off with those phone charges when my girls were in college. That was one of those expenses they didn't tell you about. $crew the schools and their phone deals!!!

[Larry Lucido]

My calculation comes to 8 hrs 20 min each month. (2 hrs 5 min per week) Seems a bit much.

That's nothing. My wife spends that much time per evening on the phone with her mother or sister. Of course, that's 2 hours of uninterrupted time for me. And, she pays the phone bill.

[glc1173@aol.com]

Anyone else see something fundamentally wrong with taxed-as-"nonprofit" colleges going into business - be it as phone companies selling to students for profit or as biotech firms getting patent rights to whatever an army of low-pay lab rats discover?

[Larry Lucido]

Student cell phone calls mean universities lose millions

And, in other news, it has been determined that:

Digital cameras mean that Photo-Mats lose millions.

E-mails mean that the post office loses millions.

Self-service elevators mean that elevator operators lose millions.

[Cultural Jihad]

: )

[Paul Atreides]

While universities are only now starting to realize this, they say it's only a matter of time before they will have to consider raising student costs to make up the difference.

Heaven forbid they should make up the difference by cutting the claptrap p.c. courses.

[discostu]

My wife talks to her mom an hour to 1 1/2 a week, and they write letters. Some folks just like to stay in touch (don't understand it myself). You also have to consider convenience, with the cell she can talk to mummy from anywhere, and a flat fee is easier to budget than a scaling charge.

[Cultural Jihad]

"Investigating One's Erogenous Zones for Fun and Profit, 101" (Prerequisite: See the Life Sciences staff personally for details)
"Producing, Marketing, and Taking Drugs: Big Deal" (Intermediate)
"Porn Making and Consumption" (Advanced)
"Learning to Whine Effectively" (No credit)

[Willie Green]

Some folks just like to stay in touch (don't understand it myself).

My wife used to call her mom daily.
Even though it was long distance, I couldn't complain much because it was only a minute or two each day.
The total bill didn't add up to much money -- but the page after page after page of itemized calls really had me scratching my head. Couldn't figure out what they had time to say to each other besides "good morning". On top of that, we only lived about 70 miles away, and visited with them almost every other weekend. Nice folks, but weird phone bills!!!

[eeman]

Get a calling card from Costco. At 3.5 cents per minute, it is cheap. It's all I use now both at home and when I travel

[Tall_Texan]

When I was in college, I used to call home collect person-to-person from my dorm room and told the operator the person I was trying to reach was Boots (the name of our cat). Then my parents were supposed to decline the charges and call me back on their own nickel at much cheaper rates than I could call them.

This scheme would have worked very well except half the time they accepted the charges and the other half of the time they wanted to knowing why I was asking for the cat. Parents....

[Mulder]

And 3 to 5 percent of the country's population has dropped standard telephone land lines for cell phone use only.

I don't blame them one bit. I've considered doing this myself, since the taxes and fees on my land line are about 40% of my total bill.