Harvard Cuts Back Operator Service

A shortage of part-time telephone operators has forced the Harvard Telephone Office to eliminate early Sunday and Monday morning directory assistance service.

Callers who dial "0" from midnight to 7:30 a.m. Sundays and Mondays are no longer greeted by an operator. Since July a recording has directed them to the police or health services in cases of emergencies, Paul M. Conway telecommunications operations manager, said yesterday.

"We couldn't get any part-time help [for this particular shift]," Conway said. People are reluctant to take the job because they know that only full-time help will be employed over the summer, he added.

Boring

According to Conway, the office closed down the early Sunday and Monday morning shifts because operators received the fewest number of calls then--only 30 calls in seven and one-half hours, compared with more that 4500 calls received on 15-hour weekdays. In the past, one operator has covered each late shift, he added.

According to a survey of the seven other Ivy League colleges, only Yale and Dartmouth offer round-the-clock operator service. All the others except Harvard do not offer operator service early weekday mornings. The main switchboards at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania are closed all weekend.

The Telephone Office is still looking for par-time operators and has notices posted at the Harvard Student Agencies, Conway said, adding that full directory assistance will resume when more help is found.

Phonebook Distribution

Students will be able to look up numbers themselves next week when the office begins issuing student phone directories.

Student directories will be ready by October 22, Conway said, and Harvard Student Agencies will handle their distribution. Students should receive phonebooks no later than October 25, he added.

"We wanted to get [the phonebook] out as soon as possible, but we also wanted it to be as accurate as possible," County said. Thus Harvard waited two to three weeks to compile information about room and phone number changes.

According to Conway, the phonebook containing faculty and staff phone numbers should appear soon afterwards, by November 5.