Telephone Troubles Plague First-Years

Francesca E. Bosco '98 worries about her father, who recently suffered a heart attack. She would like to hear from home, but despite promises from the phone office, the phone in her Canaday E room still isn't ringing.

"We can call out, but people calling in have been getting another room," she says.

Bosco and her roommates have been given a "temporary phone number," but many students haven't been so lucky. While many first-years fight off first-week homesickness by reaching for the phone, several Canaday and Pennypacker residents say they don't yet have that option.

"I am very upset," says Mark A. Price '98, a Canaday E resident. "I was sent a sheet saying when I come, my phone will be ready--to me it's a lie."

Marina Soler, manager of the Harvard Student Telephone Office, says the phone mix-up is due to "cross-wiring." Some phone lines are completely inactive. Others are active, but miswired.

"There has been a problem in the renovated dorms," Soler says. "NYNEX hasn't completely finished wiring yet."

NYNEX spokesperson Andrea Dudley says NYNEX was only informed of the situation in Canaday yesterday afternoon.

"Our technician is out there, and the problem should be fixed very shortly," Dudley says.

But with the phones down, confusion reigns.

Parents and friends, desperate to reach first-years, have sometimes tried to call other rooms to relay messages.

"I heard people are receiving calls meant for us," says Price's roommate, Kenji D. Scott '98. "We're meeting people, people want to call us. Someone else is getting calls from girls we'd like to talk to."

Soler says the telephone office has not been able to take care of the confusion prior to the first-year arrivals because "renovations go so close up to the date the dorms open."

"There's no way to know by activating the lines that they are not matching," Soler says. "There's nothing we can do before NYNEX finishes wiring... I don't believe it's a big problem."

"It's a huge problem," says Rachel E. Curtis, a proctor in Canaday. "Kids are really frustrated. These students are going through a difficult transition, and have no way to contact their families and friends conveniently."

Nynex has set up a bank of phones in the north end of Harvard Yard by the gate to the Science Center. But even with the emergency measure, students are angry about the hassle.

"As far as contacting my dad--it's very difficult," Price says. "My medical forms are incomplete, and my dad is my physician... I was back and forth between phones when I'd rather have sat down in my room to take care of it.

But with the phones down, confusion reigns.

Parents and friends, desperate to reach first-years, have sometimes tried to call other rooms to relay messages.

"I heard people are receiving calls meant for us," says Price's roommate, Kenji D. Scott '98. "We're meeting people, people want to call us. Someone else is getting calls from girls we'd like to talk to."

Soler says the telephone office has not been able to take care of the confusion prior to the first-year arrivals because "renovations go so close up to the date the dorms open."

"There's no way to know by activating the lines that they are not matching," Soler says. "There's nothing we can do before NYNEX finishes wiring... I don't believe it's a big problem."

"It's a huge problem," says Rachel E. Curtis, a proctor in Canaday. "Kids are really frustrated. These students are going through a difficult transition, and have no way to contact their families and friends conveniently."

Nynex has set up a bank of phones in the north end of Harvard Yard by the gate to the Science Center. But even with the emergency measure, students are angry about the hassle.

"As far as contacting my dad--it's very difficult," Price says. "My medical forms are incomplete, and my dad is my physician... I was back and forth between phones when I'd rather have sat down in my room to take care of it.