Over the summer, Housing and Dining and ResLife made the joint decision to pull the landline phones out of all the student dorms, including the Homewood and Bradford apartments. This decision came after much discussion and student input.
The overwhelming opinion of both the students and directors was that due to the rapid growth of cell phone usage, the landlines provided in the dorms served little purpose other than to take up space.
"Students would take them [phones] off the wall; if it was a desk phone, they would put it in a drawer, and the once or twice during the school year that it would ring, it would freak them out because they weren't used to hearing it ring," Tracey Angel, director of Housing and Conference Services, said.
Additionally, during the past school year, only eight residents throughout all of the dorm buildings had set up local and long distance plans through Telecommunication Services for the landlines, so after receiving these numbers as well as confirmation from the many students interviewed, the decision to pull the phones was an easy one, and one that has long been in the making.
Students agree that the landlines were not used very often. However, Ankita Saxena, a sophomore who lives in McCoy, says that although the change does not effect her because she never used the landlines, it might affect other people who might have limited phone minutes or not have a cell phone.
David Coren, a sophomore who lives in Charles Commons, said that he is glad that they removed the phones.
"I think it was a good decision because this way they can spend the money on other things that students would be happier to have," he said.
He said that while it was nice to have a landline as an alternate way to contact him, he only ever used it to make in-university calls.
Another benefit of removing the landlines is an economical one.
"Telecommunications infrastructure costs are distributed amongst departments based on the number of phones they have in service," said Carol Mohr, senior director of Housing and Dining Services.
The costs are recalculated annually, however, so the exact amount saved will not be known until next fiscal year.
Landlines were initially installed in the dorm rooms as a safety measure. Students would also be able to set up an account through Housing and Dining so they could place and receive calls.
When cell phones began to gain popularity, Housing turned the service over to Telecomm, and the amount of student customers plummeted, according to Angel.
"[The landlines] became a non-entity," she said.
Now, public area push button phones have been installed throughout hallways and common areas if a student in the dorms should need to contact security and does not have immediate access to a cell phone.
For the small percentage of students who do not possess or have access to a cell phone and do not wish to use a calling card, they have the option of contacting Telecomm and requesting a landline in their rooms.
Housing and Dining has not yet decided what will happen to the phones. According to Mohr, some will remain on hand for those students who choose to set up an account with Telecomm. The rest will most likely be donated.
