One of the engineering colleges in Chennai has this rule that says that students are not allowed to have mobile phones with them when they are inside the campus. This rule is applicable to those staying in hostel too. So when someone wants to contact a student staying in hostel they have to call the phone number given by the college. Now here’s where the problem comes.
The college has given only one phone number and there are also specific timings during which alone one can call that number. Imagine parents, relatives and friends of a lot of students trying a single phone number at the same time!! The line is almost always engaged! Of course, the students can call from the phones at PCOs in the college. But when there is always a queue at the phone booth, how difficult it must be for them! Besides, in case of an emergency, how can someone contact a student? Why can’t the college give at least 2 more numbers?? Considering the lakhs and lakhs of rupees that the colleges get from the students in the name of ‘fee’ for management seats, this is the least that they can do for the students.
I really don’t understand why, in this age when everyone from the local vegetable vendor to the multimillionaire has mobile phones, students are not allowed to have it. Can’t at least those staying in hostels alone be allowed to have mobile phones? They can always be asked not to use their mobiles during class hours.
It must be so difficult for the students and their family and friends to not be able to talk with each other whenever they wish to. No phone, no internet and other stupid rules – how boring! I cannot imagine being in a place like that!
😀 we all know that this particular “college” has some beautiful rules and this is just one of them.. I wonder why ppl stick flock to this college.. I have heard that their teaching is not extraordinary.. If campus placement is the answer the are students studying in other colleges never placed??
Duh!
Ridiculous ideas these – of banning the use of phones, having a dress code and all that! It is the worry of students as to how to land up a job or whatever that’s got to do with their career. The colleges should do a lot to first improve their appalling standard of education. What matters more than showing up in this dress or that/ having a phone or not is whether students learn things at their stay in college. If these are viewed as distractions to the goal, then how about having engineering colleges that don’t even have the conventional engineering courses and instead have only four or five so-called prestigious courses – Electronics and Communication vs Electrical, Computer Science vs IT – all these synonymous sounding courses, whereas age old Civil and Chemical Engineering are hard to come by! All these fashionable ideas coupled with rather poor teaching are issues to be addressed more urgently than having students forcibly wear this or prevent use of phones!
Sathej
Aparna,
I am not talking about the college that you think it is 😀 Of course some of the rules of the college that you are talking about is even worse
Sathej,
Agreed!
I can’t stand the moral police. Dress codes if present should enforce decency not a draconian ideology grounded in some parochial interpretation of morality. Anyways feel sorry for those people. Back in my college hostel in jaipur there was a rule – no water heaters, nobody knew the reason for the rule. In the winter the temperature used to reach 1C. I had two water heaters, bought a second one when I thought I had lost the first. The first was right under the bed though.
thats y i say //join deemed universities like mine ..:P
we used cellphones even in class..
yeah they will put rules..
but who follows..
rules are meant to be broken 😛
i cant imagine a day without my cellphone
I don’t know if the college name has to remain anonymous, but when we went to Anna Univ’s College of Engineering, it was the same thing there, no cell phones. I can understand if they want to say no cell phones in class but why no where else? I don’t get the logic. Anyways, I heard they have a new VC and that he’s relaxed the rules a tad bit.
The comment about not being allowed water heaters is amazing! What are they trying to do? Give you an education or teach you to lead a spartan lifestyle?!
um outta coll 😛
Trust me on this one. There were people who went without mobile phones in university. For long periods of time.
Mobile phones are *very* useful, I have no problems with them at all. However, having been in university for a few years myself, I exactly know *why* they should not be allowed. I am also of the opinion there should be allowed in certain circumstances.
I also think it’s past the stage where you can have one in uni but not in classes, with students like ours it’s simply not possible, becaue there is ALWAYS that ONE person who is going to spoil it for the lot. So I reckon they took the extreme step by banning it completely.
Aparna – Maybe you are one of them who would never misuse the advantage you have with your mobile, but can you honestly say that of everyone who has one? Let’s narrow it down to just the people you studied with. How annoyed would you be if there was a ring tone in the middle of your class? How about a few more in an hour?
Just because it exists [and helps] does NOT mean it should be allowed in all circumstances.
Sathej – You make sense. Albeit a little out of the topic, but a lot of sense. But I still think, I do beg your pardon if I am wrong, that your point actually makes a very fundamental point. Regardless of anything [Electronic engg course or whatever, jeans or mini skirts, notwithstanding the mobile in topic] folks need to worry about the education as a whole, which in my opinion has gone down, rather than bickering about triffles like which course, why no mobiles and why can’t I wear my jeans …
Apologies for the rant, but I do despair about people who just think university education as 3 or 4 years of fun filled time pass.
Well, in my opinion, the bottom line is the colleges should look at their own faces before restricting the students. How can an MTech person teach for a BTech class?? Beats me! It rarely happens in any good university abroad! At the most, they could be a tutopr, definitely not a lecturer. But thats the way it is in most colleges! Colleges should rather improve their educational standards. The n students would automatically know how to discipline themselves. Agreed that universities haven’t had phones in several years. But they didn’t have computers too, right? Then why intorduce a Computer Science course?? And to my knowledge, there are scores of highly reputed colleges outside India which have no such restrictions on dress/phone and have been doing much better than the best colleges here!
Sathej
Sathej – think we are tresspassing on Aparna’s space here. Would love to carry this discussion as I am very much interested. If you are, please mail me on maheshs4677 attherateof hotmail dot com and we shall continue this discussion.
i have been in a college which advocates this law.. and even does moral policing..
which is totaly disgusting policy of the college management and it sucks to the core !!
why ain’t the college using the strategy of using GSM /CDMA Jammer while the classes and switch it off when its not need if its intent was to just stop the usage of phones during the classes , and i wonder why anna university itself hasn’t implemented it
And few colleges like mine advocate saying it that they have implemented it even before it was implemented in anna university and take pride in saying so as if it were some webcast of classes or some technical colaboration with some other universties
i’m glad that i have completed my time in a jail which was called as a engineering college for the outside world
hey u came to about this only now??? I have been in such a jail for past 4 yrs… We can’t do anything about that… Because these college management are that strict and they follow their own stupid rules, thinking they have really very good rule in their college and it makes the student very much disciplined… how come banning of cell phones bring discipline in colleges..???
I like this rule, but banning of mobiles may not be proper. As someone said, the colleges buys lacs and lacs of rupees. They should give atleast some 4 lines for parents to talk to their sons/daughters. And there should be more PCO’s, instead of a single one.
The main reason could be of camera mobiles, where girls are the ones who are most affected. Maybe the college could ban camera mobiles alone. However, even that’s tough because it’s hard to check everytime whether it’s a camera mobile or a non-camera mobile. Again, nowadays players etc play almost any “stuff” within the mobile. Maybe that’s the reason why they don’t allow even in hostels.
My best solution is that to avoid only in class rooms. However, students break the rules always. In my college, mobile phone was allowed in class. But during class hours, they were to be switched OFF. However, sadly students didn’t live up to it. Later, mobiles were banned in my college too.
GSM/CDMA jammer is a solution.
Coming off to dress codes, formals is the right choice for men and for ladies the traditional salwar is the best. I am sure the present day generations would never approve my comment, but there are many complex intricacies involved in it and it’s better to follow that rule.
Overall, I like this article very much.
I think I have typed enough. My solution is that mobiles could be banned in classrooms. A Jammer could be used in campuses, except hostels. A browsing center/Net cafe could be constructed within the hostel campus without cabins.
Its the same in many colleges.. In fact in my college they conduct frequect raids (!!!!) to check whether there are any cell phones both in the classes and the hostel as well.. This is really frustrating.. Well I don’t mind getting caught using it during class hours.. But banning it completely is ridiculous.. Moreover most of the colleges are situated in the outskirts and even the day scholars feel that mobile is an important tool to have..
Prasad,
No water heaters?? What sort of a rule is that!!!
Arvind,
😛 This college collects fine in 1000s from students if they are found having cellphones!
Divya,
The college name need not have been anonymous. But I thought I would let everyone make their own guesses 😛 Btw, even if Anna Univ relaxed the rules, these colleges won’t.
Prasad,
I see 😛
Mahesh,
I too didn’t have a mobile till I started working 🙂 I am not complaining about the banning of mobiles in class rooms. I have a problem only with not letting even the hostelites have it, that too when the college has given only one contact phone no.!
Vishnu,
Glad to know that you have completed you are out of the jail now 😉
Tweety,
I of course, knew about this rule before. My complaint is the college giving only one contact phone no. & having restrictions on the timings when one can call
Krishna Kumar,
Unfortunately, the colleges don’t implement this solution.
Venkat,
>>Moreover most of the colleges are situated in the outskirts and even the day scholars feel that mobile is an important tool to have..
Exactly!