Students dissatisfied with new phone plan

Despite the University's efforts to give students an on-campus calling plan, students have expressed dissatisfaction with their new option.

The added "room-to-room five-digit dialing" plan allows residents to make on-campus calls at the cost of $18.95 per month, a price negotiated by Tufts Computing and Communications Services (TCCS) and PaeTec, the company which provides phone service to the University's residence halls. The new plan does not permit calls to off-campus numbers, incoming calls from off-campus locations, or calls to toll-free numbers which students might use to access calling cards.

The additional plan resulted from cooperation between the University's and PaeTec to provide a cheaper service plan for students who do not wish to purchase the full plan, which includes local calling.

Although the new plan is cheaper than the full calling plan, its price is not low enough students to switch from the first plan. Freshman Pat Mangan signed up for the original plan and was unimpressed by the new option. "I don't think that the discount is significant enough to make the switch. I would rather be able to make outgoing calls for the extra cost," he said.

Students voiced their unhappiness when phone service was entirely shut off earlier this semester in all rooms with occupants who had not signed up for the full plan. Because PaeTec failed to shut off room-to-room service last year, many students assumed that on-campus calling would again be provided free of cost this year.

Sophomore Shari?© Hudson said she returned to Tufts this fall expecting free on-campus service, like last year. "I think it is totally unacceptable that we should have to pay so much for phone service," she said. "We should at least be able to get voice mail or on-campus calling for free."

Dean of Students Bruce Reitman sympathized with students. "PaeTec did build up an expectation that there would be free phone service," he said. Yet, he acknowledged that such an expectation is economically impossible because "nothing in life is for free."

Even so, TCU senators "tried many avenues to get PaeTec to turn phones back on for free, but in the end it came down to either the new $18.95 per month option or no option at all," Senator Alison Clarke said.

Fifty percent of campus residents originally signed up for the full dialing capacity plan before the new plan became an option, but the number of students who either switched from the original plan to the new plan or who signed up for the new option outright could not be determined.

The original plan costs $31.50 a month for a single room and $37.50 for a double, and was the only option available to students before the new plan was introduced.

Some students named other colleges, such as Dartmouth, that provide on-campus and sometimes local calling free of charge when arguing that Tufts students should receive the service for free. But Reitman explained that "free phone service is a misnomer," saying that other schools that appear to provide free phone service actually tack the service cost onto the room and board fee.

"It is better to have the lowest room rate possible and then leave the option open for students whether they want phone service or not," Reitman said.

The number of students who purchase phone service has significantly decreased in recent years due to the drop in the cost of owning and using a cellular phone, PaeTec Finance Department Head Keith Wolfson told the Daily in September.

Freshman Dan Martin, who currently has phone service, expressed the sentiments of many students who feel that "rather than switching to the cheaper service, it will probably be more practical to just buy a cell phone."

Since free room-to-room phone service was shut off during the week of Sept. 23, Reitman, TCU senators, and TCCS representatives have mediated between frustrated students and PaeTec representatives. Campus residents had complained that the lack of any option other than the full calling plan limited students who did not need to make calls outside of the campus.

Students complained that they were unable to order food from some restaurants who refused to deliver to student without a room extension that their delivery people can dial from a blue light phone. Students have also found it difficult to contact other students who have cell phones and not landlines because most students' cell phone numbers are not listed in the official Tufts phone directory.

But the inability of students to call the police in case of emergency presented the most pressing problem. In an e-mail to the student body after phone service was shut off, Reitman advised students to use the blue light phones at the entrance of every dorm in an emergency situation.

But Hudson, the sophomore, voiced the concern of many students that "it may be too late" to call the police by the time one locates a blue light phone.

After hearing such complaints from the student body, the TCU Senate unanimously voted to provide a new telephone option for Tufts' residents. "Everyone agreed that the current phone service was not working and that we needed a new plan," TCU Vice-President Andrew Potts said.

After eight years as the University's telephone and cable service provider, PaeTec's contract will expire next August. A Student Advisory Committee was created earlier this semester to work with TCCS to research service providers and possible calling plans that would cater to students' demands. "Tufts University is not willing to renew its contract with PaeTec and is actively seeking alternative options," Senator Jackie Zapata said.

Tufts has the option to act as a vendor for cell phone companies, but the choice would make the University responsible for billing every student, a duty universities are hesitant to accept.

The University is considering reverting to a service similar to the one offered before PaeTec, which allowed students to buy any phone service option they need, ranging from only voice mail to on-campus calling, or the whole package. The Senate plans to survey students later this year to gauge opinion on the various service options.