Georgia Gwinnett College will no longer provide smartphones to instructors, ending the longstanding initiative designed to boost student retention.
The college will transition to a new softphone system by June 30 that allows users to make phone calls over the internet using their computers. Eliminating cell phones will save the college $200,000, according to its 2021 budget plan.
The softphone transition has led to mixed responses from both students and faculty, the latter of which were informed about the decision after the beginning of the spring semester, said Wendy Dustman, an associate professor of biology and co-founder of the GGC chapter of the United Campus Workers Union of Georgia. The new plan outlined to faculty is vague at best, Dustman said.
“A lot of [faculty] are feeling like the rug has been pulled out from under them for contacting their students,” Dustman said.
From orientation onward, GGC students were encouraged to stay connected with professors through more direct forms of communication than email.
“That’s a real problem when you’ve started off telling students ‘text me any time,’ and then suddenly you have to switch to ‘call me, and only when my computer is open,” said Rebekah Ward, associate professor of biology and the president of the GGC chapter of the workers union. “Students might feel abandoned at a time when a lot of professors are teaching remotely, at least a decent portion of the time, and feeling connected to your professor is so much more crucial under these circumstances.”
The public four-year college began distributing cell phones to faculty and qualifying staff to directly communicate with students in 2006. The initiative encouraged students to contact instructors through calling and texting, a step beyond the technology policies of other University System of Georgia institutions. It was the focal point of the college’s mission to boost student retention through technology use.
As a result, professors were not required to post office hours. Georgia Gwinnett was the only University System of Georgia institution to offer this perk.
Under the initiative, instructors could opt to use the college-provided cell phone or select a $50 monthly stipend to subsidize the use of personal phones for work purposes. GGC stopped funding the stipend a few years ago, but continued to pay for the data plans on the college-provided phones, according to Ward.
Over time, the program has become unaffordable as the school’s enrollment has grown and the cost of phones and phone plans has risen. A 2011 review of the program also found that the college’s technology office was not adequately staffed to manage the program.
The workers union issued a petition in January asking the college’s cabinet to reconsider its decision. The petition also questions the security of the software.
“So many GGC faculty chose this institution because of our mission about student engagement, and it’s profoundly disappointing to many of them, because this appears to be a move in the opposite direction,” Ward said.
Katie Coscia, a May 2020 GGC graduate and current first year Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware, considers the transition “an absolutely horrible idea.”
Before transferring to GGC in 2018, Coscia had never experienced the type of close connection between professors and students.
“You’re getting rid of one of the things that was actually going well for the school, something that made it different, having that accessibility,” she said.
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