When students started their first day of poetry class, some were surprised by a new policy adapted by professor Julie Couch.
"I think it sucks," Lauren Leonard, a senior public relations major from San Antonio, said. "There are emergencies that happen, and the only way to get a hold of students is by their cell phones."
Under Couch's new policy, any time a student's cell phone goes off, the entire class is marked absent for the day.
"It is more preventative than punitive," Couch said. "I am not doing it because I want to take points away from students. I am doing it because I want to stop cell phones from going off."
Couch said this is the first semester in which she has tried the new policy.
"I have had problems in the past," she said. "It seems like every day a cell phone was going off in class. My class is discussion based. When you are having a really good discussion and a cell phone goes off, it distracts the entire class and takes a while to get back into the discussion."
In past semesters, Couch said, the policy was to only mark the person absent whose cell phone went off during class.
"But that did not work because no one would admit that it was their phone," Couch said. "Everyone would look around like they had no idea whose phone was going off."
Charles Smith, a senior English major from Cisco, said the policy is not perfect, but he will learn to accept it.
"I think it's a little odd that everyone could be penalized for one person's mistake," Smith said. "But there is nothing I can do about it. The only thing I can do is make sure my phone is off before I go into class."
Couch said every day she puts a reminder on the board for students to turn off cell phones. She said she is not trying to penalize students.
"It is a collective effort," she said. "I think people will feel more pressured into remembering to turn off their phones if they know they are responsible for the entire class."
Amanda Place, a senior English and Spanish major from Waco, said she does not think her teacher has vindictive intentions.
"She seems like a nice person, so I was a little surprised when I saw the cell phone policy," Place said. "If a cell phone went off and I got penalized, I would be pretty pissed."
Place said her anger would not be targeted toward the teacher.
"I wouldn't be upset at the teacher," she said. "I would be more upset with the person who forgot to turn off their cell phone."
Couch said any student who anticipates an emergency should put their phone on vibrate.
"There is no excuse for a phone going off," she said.
Sam Dragga, chair of the English department, said professors are empowered by the university to make their own policies.
"It (the new cell phone policy) is not something I would do," Dragga said. "But it is each instructor's discretion to have their own individual policy within the classroom."
Dragga said students who have a problem with Couch's cell phone policy have options.
"The students are made aware of the policy on the first day," Dragga said. "If they have a problem with the policy, the student should think about taking a different class."
Couch said in the first two days of class she noticed students being more careful with their cell phones.
"I see students before class starts consciously turning off their phones," she said. "I think they are being more careful because they know they are accountable for not only themselves, but a group of 20 other people."
Couch said the new cell phone policy is on a trial basis.
"Hopefully it will cut down on the number of phones ringing and interrupting our class discussion," she said. "But if it doesn't work, I will have to try something different."
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