Schools nationwide — including Iowa State University — are ending their on-campus housing’s landline service this fall, but the UI has yet to join the trend.

ISU is in the process of deactivating approximately 3,400 landlines, which cost roughly $15 apiece per month each, said Lynn Larsen, the university’s business manager. Although officials now have to install emergency phones in the residence halls, the university is still looking at roughly $153,000 in savings annually.

ISU opted to cut the landlines after receiving survey results indicating around 90 percent of students living on campus own cell phones.

The UI has yet to record such detailed information.

The UI has 3,000 landlines on campus, but there are no recent numbers on the use of cell and landline phones in residence halls, said Von Stange, the director of University Housing. The UI can’t consider ending phone service in the residence halls until its contract with Information Technology Services ends in a couple of years.

The contract includes ethernet, cable, and phone in a bundled service; the breakdown of cost has not been analyzed, Stange said.

Students have the option to give the university their cell-phone information when they check-in to dorms, but because it’s voluntary, the list is not complete.

During summer Orientation, students are told to have an active phone in their rooms because it is a primary way for the university to reach them. Plus, landlines can be cost-effective.

“We encourage people to have them to save money on local calls,” Stange said.

In recent years, UI officials have started to transition into calling students on their cell-phones, said Greg Thompson, the Residence Life manager of operations.

Two Big Ten schools, Penn State University and University of Wisconsin-Madison, also find cell-phones to be a better medium for contact with students. Both are ending landlines in dormitories this year.

A survey at Penn State showed roughly 97 percent of students use cellular phones, said Conal Carr, the school’s director of housing operations.

Penn State officials are cutting nearly 7,000 phone lines, costing $10.15 each per month. Including the price to install a phone on the hall of each floor, the university will save approximately $600,000 for the first year and even greater savings years in the future, Carr said.

“[It’s] money that’s going to waste,” he said.

Nationally, almost a quarter of households with both landline and cellular phones received almost all of their calls on the cell phones, according to a National Center for Health Statistics survey reported in 2008.

Some UI students said they wouldn’t mind if officials disconnected landline services in the dorms.

UI junior Kasey Sabin, who lived in the residence halls, said she thinks getting rid of landlines and simply having emergency phones at the UI would be beneficial.

“It’s practical to get rid of [landlines] and save money,” she said, and the UI should use that money elsewhere.

UI senior Kathleen Graham had similar thoughts.

With the number of people who own cell phones, landline phones do not seem necessary anymore, she said.

UI officials will continue to have talks about getting rid of landlines, Stange said, but they first need to determine how much money would be saved.

“I think that at some point in the future that may happen for us — we’re just not sure when,” Thompson said.