College and University Blog
Text Messaging - Not Just for Students Anymore
Nearly 80% of college students send and receive text messages, averaging 115 messages per month. A 2006 study by Campus Media Group indicated that students spend almost 20 minutes a day sending and receiving text messages. Colleges are jumping on the texting bandwagon to notify students of many things.
When the shootings occurred at Virginia Tech, officials sent out e-mail alerts according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Few people received them. Students are less inclined to rely on e-mail for information than they used to be. This trend is prompting many colleges to adopt other methods of emergency notification. Many of these services involve cell phones.
There are a variety of notification services that schools can subscribe to that will text emergency notification to students when needed. Students are required to register their contact information with the school to receive these notifications. Unfortunately, administrators are finding that students are not rushing to sign up text alerts. After the Virginia Tech shootings, many campuses felt this was the answer to keeping their students alert to danger, but students don’t seem to share their concerns. There are privacy concerns for students who register their cell phones with these services. Most want to be assured that their cell phone numbers will not be sold or used in ways other than for informational alerts.
Another way that colleges are using text messaging is in recruitment. College coaches are using a loophole in NCAA regulations to contact recruits. The NCAA limits college coaches to one phone call per week to a recruit during his senior season. Text messages are not considered phone calls and are not restricted. This has turned recruiting into a 24-hour-a-day process. Texts are often received at inopportune times, like during the school day during classes. Most of these texts are small talk and not important, they are sent to keep a player