In this ever-growing age of technology we live in, the days of wall jacks and corded telephones are becoming distant memories. While departments at Longwood University still use landline phone service, a change has been implemented for on-campus residential areas for the 2010-2011 academic year. Landline phone service is no longer standard in residential dorms. All phone jacks were set to a disabled setting and must be activated by Information and Instructional Technology Services (IITS) in order to work.
Vice President of Information & Instructional Technology Services and Chief Information Officer Dr. Frank Moore discussed the changes in operation for the new school year. "It's not just Longwood," said Moore. "This is also a national trend. I've been following this for the last three years."
Moore added that in today's world, it would be more common for landline phones not to exist in every dorm room. He said just so the option was available for students to have a landline activated, all is well.
Discussion began three years ago between the university, the Board of Visitors (BOV), IITS and Residential and Commuter Life (RCL). Moore said safety was the top priority for each of the respected groups when making the decision to allow optional phone service for each residence hall room. He used the example when a student fell from a balcony at Lancer Park five years ago. In that situation, no one used a landline to call 911. Instead, Moore said only cell phones were used. Since the majority of people seemed to have cell phones even then, the issue of safety was mostly addressed.
Mark Kendrick, director of communications and technology services, said when phone service was established in 1989, it was a revenue generator for the university. "Over the years, with the use of cell phones, the use of landlines became less and less," said Kendrick.
Each year, IITS conducts a survey regarding satisfaction and use of services provided. Last year, 12.93 percent of the 580 students questioned living on-campus said they used the university's telephone service in their residence hall while 47.41 percent said they did not. For those that used Longwood telephone service in 2009-10, 8.39 percent made local calls, 3.19 percent made long distance calls, and only 3.02 percent used the voice mail service. The remaining 85.4 percent did not answer the question.
"Very few students are actually using the land line phone service anymore," said Larry Robertson, associate dean of students and executive director of RCL. In fact, only 30 students requested landline service to their on-campus rooms as of August 26. Robertson noted safety as a top priority when making the decision. He said there is a phone at each front desk of every residence hall, in each Resident Advisor's (RA) room, and scattered around campus at emergency phone locations."Apartment communities have been experiencing with this for a few years now," added Robertson. He said schools such as James Madison University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Virginia all are going through a similar process. He admitted many students did not follow the procedure of having a phone in their room when it was a requirement in the student handbook, a regulation that ended last year. "The reality was, even when we required [students] to use the phone service, not that many students were using it."
Phone service to the apartment complexes is managed by CenturyLink. Kendrick said for Longwood phone service to reach those locations, CenturyLink would charge $28 per month, per line. He said the endeavor would be too large since the revenue generated would not make up for the cost since Longwood does not charge for local calls, which constitutes as the largest type of calls made.
Even though less lines equals a lower cost, the savings to the university is not calculated by a one-on-one basis. Kendrick explained Longwood has its own phone system that uses trunks from a phone company, which provides the phone service to residence h. If the university decides not to provide phone service across the board to residence halls, there is a savings because there are fewer trunks, less maintenance services and less operating costs.
"Our savings will probably be in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,000 annually." Kendrick said there is also energy savings in not operating all the lines. "It's simply disabled, like turning a switch off."
In 1989, telephone revenue, after expenses, was around $1 million. The money went to various university services and departments. Last year, the total call service revenue was $20, according to Kendrick. The revenue once generated helped provide more university services, keep tuition lower, make better technology available and improve overall education. Now, the university is struggling because they are being forced to make long-distance calls out to cell phones, which creates expenses rather than revenue.
Longwood has looked at the university's phone service as the official means of communication to students, along with emailing, in the past. The university has also considered the possibility of offering cellular phone service to students since many people are not from the local area. This would help keep long-distance fees down for the university. However, most students have cell phone service through a family plan or hometown vendors.
If a student wants to activate their phone jack, they are advised to contact the Help Desk at 434-395-4357 to request a work order. If a request is submitted during morning hours, the jack should be activated by that afternoon. While landlines are disabled, they have not been removed. "It's still there. It's a road basically where no traffic is allowed," said Moore.
Also new this year, students are being urged to register their gaming consoles, such as PlayStation 3 and XBOX Live, with the Help Desk. This helps control the area networks so gamers can connect to the Internet. This summer, the university doubled the bandwidth tripled two years ago. The increase is from 156 MB/s to 300 MB/s. Moore described the connection speed as an "interstate." He said bandwidths of that nature are commonly found in cities and on larger college campuses. For those interested in registering their consoles, contact the Help Desk and fill out a form.
