More Security Phones Planned for Houses

Students will soon be seeing more of those familiar blue lights around campus.

As part of a major upgrade of call boxes around campus, Harvard's Office of Physical Resources (OPR) will install new police assistance phones in the Quad and near the river Houses.

"We're putting phones in the most useful spots for students," said Merle A. Bicknell, manager of Harvard Yard Facilities. "We've tried to cover every area that we can."

Many of the new phones will be located in the area around JFK, Mt. Auburn and Bow Streets, and Mass. Ave.

Harvard Yard Operations and the OPR are also installing more call boxes along the lighted "safety walk" on Garden Street.

"We thought, 'Let's try to put some on the light poles where people are walking at night,'" Bicknell said.

Almost all of the blue light phones in Harvard Yard have already been replaced with the new models, according to Bicknell.

"The original experiment was in the Yard," said Robert L. Mortimer, an associate director with the OPR. "Now we're finally going to take it out to the other areas."

Emergency assistance phones have been used at Harvard for more than 15 years, said Peggy A. McNamara, spokesperson for the Harvard Police Department. The upgrade project officially began four years ago, when a group of undergraduates complained to Bicknell, Mortimer and the Harvard Police about the phones.

Many of the old phones did not comply with regulations in the Americans with Disabilities Act, Bicknell said. Also, many were difficult to operate during the cold weather months.

According to Bicknell, the new model, which will eventually be the prototype for all phones on campus, is equipped with software that monitors the operation of the phone and a heater to keep the keypad from freezing.

Upgrades have already been completed in the athletic area, with three new call boxes and three cellular phones on or near the fields.

"That was very high on our list of priorities," Bicknell said. "But we had to wait for technology to catch up."

Like the old models, most of the new phones are also equipped with a regular keypad permitting phone calls to all Harvard numbers in the centrex system.

Many students use the blue light phones forthis non-emergency purpose.

"I use them whenever I lock myself out," saidErin B. Ashwell '02. She added that she does notknow anyone who has used the box to call thepolice in an emergency.

McNamara said in an e-mail message that whileHUPD probably receives more calls from ordinarytelephones than from the emergency call boxes, theblue light phones nevertheless serve theirintended purpose.

"With most [regular call boxes] now having ared emergency button, those phones have becomeemergency call boxes as well, and we do receivecalls from them," McNamara said

Many students use the blue light phones forthis non-emergency purpose.

"I use them whenever I lock myself out," saidErin B. Ashwell '02. She added that she does notknow anyone who has used the box to call thepolice in an emergency.

McNamara said in an e-mail message that whileHUPD probably receives more calls from ordinarytelephones than from the emergency call boxes, theblue light phones nevertheless serve theirintended purpose.

"With most [regular call boxes] now having ared emergency button, those phones have becomeemergency call boxes as well, and we do receivecalls from them," McNamara said