Wave of Crank Calls Strikes Residents of Stoughton, Adams

Students settling into the fall semester were reminded last week of yet another Harvard tradition--one significantly less enjoyable than mudsliding in the Yard or tailgating at the Yale Game.

Residents of Yard dorms and of Adams House complained of repeated crank calls last week. An official at the Harvard University Police Department said yesterday that such calls are common at the beginning of the academic year.

"Anyone who had a machine got a message," said Sarah E. Funke '95 of a string of calls made to Stoughton Hall on Wednesday night.

"It started out, Hi. How's it going? I just got out of the shower,' and then got really bad," Funke said, adding that the messages were usually about three minutes long.

Stoughton resident Kim A. Williams '95 said a message was recorded on her machine by a man who sounded middle-aged. The call lasted about 10 seconds, she said.

Williams said Harvard University police officers came to Stoughton after the first call was reported. By the time they arrived, two similar phone calls had been received by the dorm's residents.

"They're keeping a record, and they want people to tell them [if they receive calls]," said Williams.

Students living in Adams House's A-entry also complained yesterday of crank callers. But this time the calls were racial as well as sexual in nature.

Matt C. Weiner '92, who received one of the calls at 6 a.m., said the person on the other end of the line was "making comments about Koreans."

Srikanth A. Reddy '95, who lives in C-Entry of Wigglesworth Hall, said he received a crank call nearly a week ago.

Jack W. Morse, deputy chief of the Harvard University Police Department, said he was aware of an "epidemic" of such calls recently.

"Our advice is: hang up. If you don't stay on, you don't encourage them," he said.

Morse added that students should report crank calls to the police.