As part of a new telephone system Dartmouth installed at the end of Fall term, the College may offer students voice-mail service starting this fall.
Director of Administrative Services Marcia Colligan said, "We ... hope to be able to make [voice mail] available in the fall."
Voice mail is a feature that allows callers to leave messages at a central electronic storage location. The feature eliminates the need for students to have answering machines, and students would be able to access their messages from any phone at the College.
Colligan said if the feature is installed, voice-mail users will be charged a fee to have the service because it "requires the purchase of additional equipment."
Colligan said six months after the College installed new Ericsson MD-110 telephone switch equipment, most users say they like the new system.
"The majority of the administration has been pleased with the new system," Colligan said. "Some individuals have had problems adjusting to this change, particularly with the call diversion features, [but] telephone services has provided additional training."
She said the new equipment has removed many of the problems of the old system like cross-talk and call interruptions.
The new system has added features like last number redial, call waiting for off-campus calls and automatic callback for on-campus calls. As part of the switch all residential phone prefix numbers were switched from 640 to 646.
Colligan said Telephone Services has not received many complaints from the system's users. "In fact there has been a noticeable reduction of complaints since the new system was installed," she said.
A number of students said they are mostly satisfied with the new system.
