Giving Gen-Ed Students Your Personal Phone Number

[fishbrains]

After a couple of meetings this week, I discovered that, since faculty aren't in their offices right now, our admins kind of expected faculty to give students their personal phone numbers as a way to contact them. As a CC instructor, I teach freshizzles and sophomores and don't give out my personal phone number. I want a record of what I say to them and what they say to me--a concern Google Voice doesn't cover. I've been happy to do a Zoom meet-up, but students don't seem interested. So I've started wondering how many folks who teach freshizzles and sophomores in gen-ed-type courses give out their personal phone numbers to students. Hence the poll.

[Ahania]

I used to very rarely give out my personal number to students in my gen eds -- these were students who had declared a major in what I teach and were promising, were working on research to be submitted.  Over many years, there were maybe only 1 or 2 I did this for.

Given that I am now in my office much less, I give students in all of my classes a Google Voice number.  In my experience, only majors and those working on individual studies projects with me use it.  My gen ed students still prefer to email -- even though I have told them they can text the Google number.

[Langue_doc]

I too like to have a record of conversations, so students can communicate with me through email or Zoom. Besides, I'm paying for my phone service.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I have my office phone forwarded to my cell. Works for me. This way, my number does not get out.

[cathwen]

I never give out my phone number.  Almost anything can be resolved through email or a Zoom meeting.

That said, a few years ago I did have a student in my class in an urgent situation who requested a phone conversation, so I did call her.  She was pregnant and had fallen down a few steps, had gone to the hospital, and was recovering at home, confined to bed.  Fortunately, the course was online and asynchronous, so it was easy to come to an arrangement about work missed (which wasn't much), work going forward, etc. 

[kiana]

Hell no.

They can email me, they can use the Canvas app to text me through Canvas, or they can schedule a videoconference.

If there were some specific reason to talk to a student on the phone I could schedule one. But giving it out? Nope.

[Parasaurolophus]

Nonononono.

I don't answer my phone anyway, but still no.


Besides which, my personal devices are my personal devices. If work wants me to have a particular device, they'd better be paying for it.

[Ruralguy]

No to personal phone. They can try office phone (they rarely do that any longer) or email.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Double-posting to add....

They rarely call me. I'm mostly inundated with email and then interact with them in a virtual meeting.

[Puget]

My grad students have my cell number for emergencies, but undergrads? Hell no.

They can email. They can book a time during zoom office hours or set up an appointment at another time (during normal work hours) if they can't make those. Those in my lab can Slack.

[HigherEd7]

No, if students need to ask me a question or need some help I will ask for their number and call from a private line.

[clean]

NO.

My office has a phone. IF/when someone leaves a message, the message is turned into an email, and I can play it.  IF i need to call the student back, I can on my phone, or I can email that student directly.

(You can block your number from being sent on Caller ID, so they can not call you back)

[onehappyunicorn]

Absolutely not, and as a supervisor over our part-time faculty I make it clear that students should not have their personal numbers either. There are just too many issues that can happen and have happened in the past. There are people here who still talk about a part-time instructor who went on a spring break trip with a student and that incident is pushing 15 years ago now, well before all but one person who works in our department was even here. The full-time faculty have calls forwarded from their office phones but rarely do students even call now, the vast majority email.

[downer]

Absolutely not, and as a supervisor over our part-time faculty I make it clear that students should not have their personal numbers either. There are just too many issues that can happen and have happened in the past. There are people here who still talk about a part-time instructor who went on a spring break trip with a student and that incident is pushing 15 years ago now, well before all but one person who works in our department was even here. The full-time faculty have calls forwarded from their office phones but rarely do students even call now, the vast majority email.

That is a total tease.

Let's have the full spring break story!

[Caracal]

Absolutely not, and as a supervisor over our part-time faculty I make it clear that students should not have their personal numbers either. There are just too many issues that can happen and have happened in the past. There are people here who still talk about a part-time instructor who went on a spring break trip with a student and that incident is pushing 15 years ago now, well before all but one person who works in our department was even here. The full-time faculty have calls forwarded from their office phones but rarely do students even call now, the vast majority email.

I see it as just a logistical issue, not a privacy or boundaries concern. I wouldn't want students texting or calling me, because that isn't an effective or efficient way for me to communicate with them. I wouldn't worry at all about giving my number to a student in a circumstance where it was useful, even if it was just that I was meeting them somewhere on campus and was worried we might have trouble locating each other.

However, those are rare cases and I want to get emails about class, not text messages. Same goes for all professional communication. I wouldn't want my chair writing me a text about the Fall schedule either. I want that information in an email that I can easily access if I need to.