(U-WIRE) OXFORD, Miss. – The Faculty Senate at Mississippi State University looks to ban cell phones from all classrooms, but a ban is not on the agenda at the University of Mississippi.

Mississippi State Faculty Senate members are working on a policy that treats the use of phones in a classroom as an offense that would justify removing students from classrooms for possessing a cell phone. If the ban is added to the policy, any student even seen with a phone in class will be asked to leave.

The MSU faculty senate will take up the issue at a meeting later in the semester.

“We do oppose the use of phones in class, but we do not want a ban altogether,” said Edward Sanders, president pro tempore of MSU Student Association Senate.

The Student Association Senate concluded that banning them would inconvenience many students when they need to use a phone.

“It will be brought up later in the semester even though student legislation voted against it,” said Josh Foreman, editor of MSU campus newspaper, The Reflector.

As for Ole Miss this is something that has not been discussed, said Maurice Eftink, associate provost.

The biggest problem with phones are the possibility of them ringing and the ability to cheat, according to MSU administrators.

“I do not know if banning them is necessary, it may be going too far,” Eftink said. “Plagiarism is a bigger concern for this institution.”

According to a Jan. 24 article in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Walter Diehl, a professor at MSU, said he is fed up with phones in class. If he catches a student with one, he asks them to leave the class. He said if the policy is university-wide, then professors would have more authority enforcing the rule. Ole Miss officials said professors have the right to ask students to turn their phones off.

Many syllabi for classes at the university contain pleas for students to turn their cell phones on silent or completely off.

“The rules already in place include using a phone inappropriately,” Eftink said.

The camera tool and text-messaging feature on phones can provide easy ways to cheat.

“I have heard it was a concern at other schools but it has not been addressed here,” said Provost Carolyn Staton.

Most syllabi state the classroom rules, which include no use of phones. The university is not aware that this topic is a huge issue in the classrooms.

“There should not be a policy banning them, the rules should be up to the professor,” said Brett Thomas, a sophomore English major from Oxford, Miss.

– Carroll Gunn