Residence students will no longer be charged for a mandatory landline phone in their residence rooms, according to a recent announcement made by the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA).
The phones were eliminated following student requests and a campaign promise by the current RRRA executives.
RRRA president Graham Pedregosa said it was a collaborative decision between RRRA and housing to offer free room phones to students.
Students can now request the phones from the university free of charge, according to director of housing and residence life Laura Storey.
Storey said housing wanted to prevent unnecessary operating costs since most students don’t use room phones.
“We’ll have the lines available to everyone as part of our commitment, but only those wanting a phone will get one,” she said in an email.
Pedregosa said the landlines were becoming obsolete because most students use mobile phones to call home, so there was little point in charging them for landline telephones.
“Most students have cellphones or they use Skype now to call back home,” he said.
Storey said each student living in residence last year paid $235 for telephone and Internet services.
The residence telephone fee was eliminated after RRRA advocated for its removal in 2015.
The $235 fee will now go towards upgrades in Internet services, so students will not see a decrease in residence fees.
After students asked for a review of residence telephone fees last year, Storey said she realized very few students were using the services.
“Based on the current demand for services we will be calling the fee a technology fee and it will go towards upgrades of services,” Storey said.
Pedregosa said that he expected few students to request the phones this year because so few students used them last year.
“I would really be surprised if more than 100 students requested them. Just this day and age . . . Everyone has other ways of communicating with each other, other than landline telephones.”
Storey said currently fewer than 200 students have requested a free phone for their residence.
She said she anticipates this number will remain the same throughout the year.
Petronella Duda, a third-year journalism student, said she would consider requesting a free phone for residence.
Duda said she is not from Ottawa and thinks having a local number could benefit her when applying for jobs and internships.
However, Niamh Donnelly, a first-year anthropology student, said she is unlikely to request a phone for her residence.
“A phone isn’t a big priority—although would be a good idea to have just in case my phone died,” she said via Facebook.
She added the elimination of the phone and the reallocation of the fee is a good idea so fees can better reflect students’ needs.
Storey said local calls are included, so students would pay for long distance calls themselves.
“Long distance charges would be considered extra and students would be charged for these,” she said.
Storey added the process of eliminating the fee “involved consultations with various stakeholders on campus.” These include students, staff, and internal departments, such as the Computing and Communication Services (CCS), the Office of Student Affairs, University Services, the Department of University Safety, the Residence Commons Reception Desk and Conference Services.
Residence fees for a traditional single-occupancy room and an all-access meal plan for this year are $11,419, an increase of $281 from last year.
“Residence fees saw a slight increase based on cost of living increases, utilities increases and service-related increases. This fee increase was discussed with student representatives on RRRA and GSA who were in favour of the increases,” Storey said.
She added extra phones have been put into storage.
Students can request a residence phone by emailing accommodations@carleton.ca.
