Despite a 78-Day Strike, Students Get Their Phones

Despite the 78 day-old New England Telephone and Telegraph strike, Summer School students living in Harvard dormatories are getting telephones installed.

As of Wednesday evening, the telephone company has connected 93 telephones, according to Message Center receptionist Katherine Singer, Twenty-eight of these phones are for proctors, and students use the remaining 65.

"This week," said Miss Singer, "there have been 10 to 15 installations per day, and I understand even more were installed Thursday--perhaps 20 or 25. There may even be some phones I don't know about," she added.

The manager of the Cambridge office of the telephone company, Thomas Wallace, said in an interview Wednesday, "We have several thousand orders back-logged in Cambridge alone. We're installing some phones very quickly. I've seen some go in in a day or two, and most take about a week."

One phone company official said, "There are no priorities for the installation of phones except for life and death cases, such as doctors. First we look at when the order was placed and then we see if we can do it."

Wallace explained, "The dorms are better off than most because of the simplicity of installing the phones. On campus, the same cables and telephone number are assigned to a room over the years. Most of the work for reconnecting a phone can be done in the central office. Also, there is less paperwork. Since we are very short on personnel, this is important."

Even if the strike ends soon, however, Wallace could not predict any speed-up in installations. "I don't think it would make any appreciable difference," he said.

As for the situation for Harvard students returning in the fall, Wallace admitted, "Right now we have no idea. There isn't too much long range planning. The fall is a million years away."

Before the phones came in appreciable numbers, most Summer School students, especially women, communicated with the outside world, mostly men, via the Message Center.