Hooking up to a cell-phone habit

    By Maggie Rhynes
    IV Leader Staff

    Sometimes it is the abrupt blaring of a song chorus, sometimes it sounds like a video game gone berserk, other times it is a high-pitched chirp and on occasion it sounds like a phone ringing, but no matter what its melody, the sound of the ringing cell phone can be heard anywhere and everywhere. Cell phones are ringing in classrooms, in the library, even in the bathroom stalls.
    You can catch up with a long distance friend (but only after 9 p.m.), you can call for help or even text message your vote for American Idol. Cell phones have their purposes and it seems there are just as many cell phones as students here at Illinois Valley Community College.
    While library has posted "Shh, quite study zone" signs and instructors have added cell phone-ring-penalties to their syllabi, it seems most students simply won't leave home without their cell phones.
    Teri Bruning of Spring Valley is among those who keep their cell phones with them and turned on at all times. "I keep my on vibrate because I have a little kid and if he is sick and I'm in class for an hour, he can't wait," she explained.
Bruning said her home has gone wireless, eliminating the seemingly old-fashioned house phone and relying on cell phones. "We do not have a house phone because we were paying $70 a month for it and $100 a month for cell phones and we weren't using the house phone," she said.
    The comfort of knowing she can be reached in an emergency leads Bruning to keep her cell phone handy.
    According to data from Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), a membership organization which complies date on the wireless community, there were 194.5 million cell phone users in the United States as of October 2005. That number was expected to hit 2 billion worldwide by the close of 2005.
    While the use of cell phones is increasing and the constant ring and buzz of incoming calls can be distracting, cell phones may have earned their keep among members of the emergency response community. In 1985, the number of daily 9-1-1 (or other such emergency calls) from cell phones totaled 530. By 2005, the number soared to over 224,000 calls a day.
    With the daily commute and threat of bad weather or car trouble, many IVCC students have used their cell phones in emergency situations. After a late night at school, Greta Lieske of Ottawa found her self stuck on the side of Starved Rock Road. Lieske's car had been hit by a deer, leaving her stuck on the side of the road with a herd of deer wandering around car.
    "If I wouldn't have had a cell phone I would have had to brave Starved Rock in the middle of the night until someone came along and found my deer-beaten body," Lieske said.
    Though the threat of being assaulted by deer may not have been a 9-1-1 worthy emergency, Lieske used her cell phone to call her father for help.
    Other students, like Ben Hucker, keep a cell phone with them in case of an emergency. However, Hucker says his cell phone stays in the car once he gets to IVCC. "I have my phone but it's just for emergencies. It's one of those things you have and you hope you never have to use."
    Scott Moshage, another student, is the opposite: "I use it all the time; I don't use my home phone anymore."
    Moshage and Hucker both agreed cell phone users can get annoying. For Moshage, cell phone conversations in a movie theatre are a nuisance. But it's drivers on cell phones that get to Hucker. "People driving and talking, that's annoying. And then they cut you off and it just gets more annoying," he said.
    For IVCC instructors, it's the ring of cell phones during class that gets annoying and many have had to add policies to their syllabi to handle the problem.
    Yelena Kajevic an English instructor, said she added a “please turn off your phone” policy to her syabus. “Before, people’s phones were going off from one corner to the room to another. Having a policy prevents the distractions.”
    The majority of instructors have followed suit, with some even applying penalties for phones that ring in class. Most however, are willing to handle the ring of a phone if the student has a sick child or other such possible emergency. Policies aside, cell phones have become a part of every day life and at IVCC, it seems they are here to stay.