The idea to change the off campus toll-calling button from 9 to 8 emerged in the Spring of 2007, when Mr. Andrew Speyer, head of ITS, proposed that such a switch would better the Choate community. The reason for the switch was mainly the number of accidental 911 calls that had caused the Wallingford Police Department to make unnecessary visits to the Choate campus. While the change has probably forestalled these unfortunate occurrences, some Choaties find it inconvenient.
On Tuesday April 1st, the campus phones located in the Science Center and Steele Hall were reprogrammed to use the number 8 to make any off campus local calls or any other external phone calls. “We had to program each switch meticulously to switch it to 8 from 9,” said Mr. Speyer.
Many students have dialed 9-1-1 by accident by pressing 1—which precedes the area code—briefly forgetting, and pressing 1 a second time. Another bizarre yet rather frequent occurrence was “for international calls, pressing 9-0-1-1 and forgetting the zero,” as Mr. Speyer declared.
Speyer stated, “I don’t really expect any positive or negative reactions in particular.” The lack of early communication between ITS and the Choate student body had caused an uproar in a fraction of the student body and left some Choate students clueless. Ian Chan ’10 said, “I think they should have told us. We were not notified of the change before it had actually occurred. No one knew about it, and it caused a lot of confusion because I just didn’t know how to call my parents. The inability to inform the student body on time is absolutely atrocious.” Anne Lee ’10 stated, “It’s annoying because now I have to completely edit my entire address book on my dorm phone, but overall, it doesn’t affect my life too much.”
For others, however, the number change didn’t seem to pose a threat. Many Choate students knew nothing about the change from 9 to 8; many did not even know that the number for off campus toll calling had been 9 in the first place. “I don’t mind the number change. It doesn’t make much of a difference,” said Pong Songmetta ’09.
Numerous Choate students and faculty have experienced the unfortunate repercussions when the police department arrived at the doorstep of their dormitories for what began as a mere mishap. The moment one presses 911, there is no turning back. Ian Chan ’10, who has mistakenly dialed those three numbers, said “Although many on campus were left perplexed, I guess the change is good because people won’t be making the 911 mistake again.” Agreeing with Chan was Julie Bauer ’10, who said, “I think the switch is a good idea because I unintentionally called 911 and got a nice little visit from the Wallingford Police after check-in at 12. It’s nice to know that it’s not going to happen again.”
Many students consider the landlines completely unnecessary because of the widespread usage of mobile phones. Julie Bauer said, “Before I got my cell phone, the switch would be a much more important issue. I used to need to press 9 before calling home. Now it’s not necessary.”
Choate students who are reliant on the landlines reacted to this significant switch strongly. Those students with cell phones had almost no reaction. In retrospect, the switch to 8 was probably a smart choice. Anne Lee ’10 concluded with a chuckle, “I believe there will be good coming out of this. After all, eight is the lucky number in China.”
