College dorms have been steadily moving away from landline phones, but the latest examples of Missouri colleges ditching copper are stark.
In 2007, the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) disconnected the landlines in its residence halls for a savings of $75,000 a year, says the Associated Press. Last year UMKC opened up new student housing that included landline connections. Of 850 students in the resident hall, only four hooked up landlines.
New residence halls at Avila University, also in Kansas City, won't include landline hookups. Truman State University, in Kirksville, Mo., is not providing landline phones in all of its dorm rooms, but it still provides RJ-11 jacks in the rooms and is keeping at least one landline phone in a hallway or main lobby for emergencies.
An exception to the trend, University of Kansas is keeping active landline jacks in each residence hall room, but students aren't picking up the phone, sticking to the cell phones they bring to college with them.
College Parents of America conducted an online survey that found only 25 percent of parents are using landline phones to communicate with their child at school.
For more:
- AP story through gatorsports.com. Article.
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