Cell phone epidemic hits UWWC
Ubiq Staff Writer
Rachel St. Peter
You're sitting quietly in the school computer lab, working on an English paper due the next day when someone's cell phone suddenly interrupts the quiet. Everyone looks around to see whose phone is ringing. You would think the owner of the phone would be embarrassed and quickly silent it, but a terrible epidemic has hit UWWC.
Quite frequently, a person in this situation will answer the phone - and it's not just to say "I'll call you back." This person will hold a conversation for any length of time, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear what her plans for the weekend and why she is mad at her boyfriend.
In every computer lab at UW-WC, signs are posted saying cell phones are not allowed. However, you can almost always guarantee this rule will be broken by someone if you spend more than five minutes in the lab.
I cannot imagine I am the only one bothered by this. I find it nearly impossible to get any work done when the relative silence of the computer lab is broken by a pointless cell phone conversation.
The computer labs and library are the only places cell phones are not allowed. Plenty of places allow talking on cell phones. How about the courtyard? The hallways? The cafeteria?
The computer lab is not the only place UW-WC students are misusing cell phones. Phones ringing in the middle of class are becoming a daily occurrence. I will admit, my phone once rang in math class. I was mortified and since then turn my phone completely off in class.
Most of the time it is the same few students' phones that go off on a regular basis. Some people are actually on their phones the entire class, text messaging. Anyone who is sitting behind a person guilty of this knows how distracting it is to other students.
Almost every instructor's syllabus says students should turn off cell phones before class. Although, most professors let cell phone rings slide. I think it is disrespectful, not only to the instructors, but to those students who actually show up to learn.
Not only do students need to be more courteous to the people around them, it is time the school does something to make students follow the rules on cell phones. Rules that are posted, but not enforced often have proved to be ineffective.
UW-WC would not be the first place to crack down on cell phones. Beginning summer of 2008, drivers in California will be ticketed for talking on a cell phone while driving and in New Jersey a driver could be fined $250 for the same offense. The Milwaukee Public School District recently banned all cell phones in schools.
Take a break from your phone, voicemail was invented for a reason. How many of those phone calls and text messages are really that urgent?
