At HSTO, the Line Is Always Busy

Have you ever had a bad day? How about a bad week? The Harvard Student Telephone Office is having a bad couple of weeks; problems with phone lines, PAC codes have plagued the campus this fall.

The incompetence of HSTO's operators is the stuff of legend. Students have reported all sorts of botches in service. One called HSTO twice during the summer to ensure that her bedroom's line would be in operation when she moved in. Of course, it wasn't. Another wanted to disconnect a line, and HSTO promptly disconnected his PAC code as well.

Other students, left incommunicado with their parents except for borrowed lines and pay phones, told of waiting days for common-room lines-not the additional bedroom lines-to be turned on. Several students, after failing to get in touch with friends, realized that the Harvard directory had not been given their correct phone numbers.

A huge amount of inconsistency in service also runs rampant through the HSTO ranks. Some students are told that their lines or PAC codes will be activated as of 3 a.m. on the night of their request. Others have to wait days. A rate few report immediate results, seemingly caused only by the use of extremely vehement language with the HSTO operator.

Indeed, getting through to HSTO can be a problem in itself. Often, the office doesn't even have enough phone lines of its own to handle the volume of calls it receives. Callers are told to hang up and try again later.

None of these problems has the weight of the Yard's telephone blackout. Many lines in Canaday and Pennypacker did not operate at all for the first week of the move in. Scores of first-years couldn't even beg their neighbors for telephone time; they had to stroll out to the little NYNEX kiosk by Holworthy to have the privilege of phone service.

We really have to wonder why all these lines weren't tested before the students came. The summer certainly offers plenty of time to check the condition of even a few thousand phone lines. Telephones occupy a crucial position in students lives during the move in, let's hope that HSTO gets its act together next time.