The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) has launched an online petition in hopes of allowing students to opt out of mandatory room phone fees.
Carleton’s department of housing currently charges students $242 a year for landlines, regardless of whether students use them.
Omar Bainto, RRRA’s vice president (administration), said most students already pay for cell phones so having them pay for a landline phone they might not use is a burden their on limited budgets.
“Many students indicated they think it’s unfair, and many don’t even use the service,” Bainto said.
“A lot of students didn’t know where their phones were, and some weren’t connected,” said RRRA’s vice-president (programming) Dorothy Anuseh.
The cost for a room phone is “unnecessary” and having students pay for two phones “doesn’t make sense,” she added.
The department of housing didn’t comment to as to whether or not an opt-out option is feasible, but associate director Lynn Burritt said the current residence contract “requires each student to accept the room telephone as part of their residence accomodation.”
“All residents have a telephone line in their room with an assigned telephone number,” Burritt said, adding that it “continues to be used as the means for them to be contacted by the university or external callers.”
The petition has 150 signatures and counting, Bainto said. The main goal is to raise awareness and “prove a point to housing to take it more seriously and prove that students want the change,” he said.
There is currently no time limit on the petition or a target number of signatures, Bainto said. It depends on students’ responses and whether the petition gains signatures daily, he said.
The petition is circulating on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and on RRRA’s website.