Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: News

(File photo/The Daily Eastern News)

A statement of principle on cell phone use in the classroom in relation to receiving text messages during emergencies will be in place this semester.

Provost Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, said the statement would acknowledge the primary role the faculty has to set the tone or set the expectations for their environment, but ensure that an emergency text message could get into that classroom in a timely way.

Lord spoke with the Faculty Senate during their Feb. 24 meeting on the topic of cell phones in the classroom.

"It was suggested that if faculty require cell phones to be turned off in a classroom, that there must be some method by which emergency messaging can get to the class," according to the minutes from the Feb. 24 meeting.

In October, Lord called for discussion in the Senate on the possibility of a university-wide cell phone policy.

John Pommier, chair of Faculty Senate, said Lord is still looking into a cell phone initiative, but that it has not been completed.

Lord has also spoke with the General Counsel on the issue, and they checked around for other policies at universities.

"There are not a lot of institutions, at least on their Web sites that have any formal policies," he said. "There's one private in this state that does have a policy that faculty must allow students to leave their phones on in class."

Lord said, in talking with the General Counsel, they came to the conclusion that if a faculty member felt it imperative to turn the cell phones off, the faculty member would have to have some means for a text message to be received in the classroom and conveyed to the class.

Lord has had discussion and dialogue back and forth with the Senate.

"They seemed to be understanding of the notion that we needed a principle like that," he said.

Lord said this is not a policy yet and the statement has not been converted into a document yet.

Pommier said when the Senate asked, Lord said he will have a cell phone policy out this semester.

Lord said he is working on a statement that would be not so much a policy as it would be a statement of principle.

This principle, he said, would recognize the faculty's responsibility for setting the classroom protocols and ground rules for decorum. The statement would also make sure faculty could not be in a position of making it impossible for a text message to get through to the class.

"In talking with the Senate, it seems pretty clear the faculty seem to be accommodating to the reality that we need a means for the class to be informed should we send out a message," Lord said.

Once Lord converts the ideas into a statement of principle he will send it to Pommier and the Senate.

After discussion, the Senate would then affirm the statement or something like it.

"Therefore, it could be viewed as sort of a university expectation," Lord said.


Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.

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