Barnard drops dorm phones, Columbia hung up on safety

When it comes to dorm landlines, Barnard says goodbye, Columbia still says hello.

Phones continue to run in dorm rooms at both Columbia and Barnard, but as these landlines become increasingly obsolete, each school is reassessing their value.

Matt Kingston, associate director for Housing Operations at Barnard, noted that dorm phone use has decreased significantly in the past several years, primarily because most students have cell phones. And while visitors to Barnard dorms had previously been able to call up to a student’s room to be signed in over the phone, the school scrapped that policy this year.

Phones were removed this summer from Cathedral Gardens, and by next year, Residential Life hopes to have the rest taken out of the remaining dorms. Instead, there will be one phone installed per hallway for emergencies and safety reasons only.

Kathryn Altomonte, BC ’09, said that while at Barnard, she used her phone often to let guests up to her room, and “I can’t imagine what it would be used for now that you can’t do it.”

Columbia’s director of residence halls, Joyce Jackson said that, though she knows students now primarily use cell phones, the dorm phones are still necessary.

Not every student provides his or her cell phone number to residential housing, and not everyone owns a cell phone, Jackson explained, meaning that there are still some who would only be reachable by their landlines. “If we were to get rid of the phones, we would have to ensure that every single student has provided their cell phone number,” she said.

There are also safety purposes for keeping landlines in—if a student calls from a dorm phone, public safety can automatically pinpoint the location, while they are unable to do so with cell phone calls. Also, Columbia residence hall desk attendants still call up to notify a student about a package or guest, though Barnard does not have this system.

But students on both sides of Broadway said they no longer saw much use for phone lines in their rooms.

“I can’t name one person I know who has used it or plans on using it,” Lalit Gurnani, CC ’11 said.

“Do those things even work?” asked Jon Sisti, CC ’12. “The day I moved into my room, I unplugged the phone and put it in my closet. That’s where it has been sitting collecting dust ever since.”

Four years ago, Barnard had ROLM phones—the University phone system installed over 20 years ago—with one per room. While Columbia still keeps the ROLM phones in their dorms, Barnard switched to a different phone system two years ago that has been significantly less expensive. A computer in the basement of Altschul now connects all the lines, and every room is equipped with a phone, as opposed to the previous one per suite. (At Columbia, Jackson said removing the phones would actually cost more than leaving them, in case there are replacement expenses.)

Despite the financial breaks in the new system, Kingston said it is still a shame that “such an amount of money is being spent on something students are not using.”

“I lived in a four-person quad last year,” Kaylin Marcotte, BC ’12, said. “Not one of us used the phone even once.”

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