Although the College does not have a tangible mascot to rally around, many students bond by griping about a common complaint: DarTalk, the College's long-distance telephone service.
In a survey conducted at the end of Spring term by The Dartmouth, 84 percent of students polled indicated they thought the DarTalk billing system is unfair.
Many students said they thought DarTalk was a "rip-off" and a "monopoly." But College officials claim DarTalk actually gives students a discount to other telephone rates.
Some of students' most common complaints about the College telephone services are the monthly fees, DarTalk's apparent monopoly, the fact that DarTalk works on a declining balance account system and the perceived rudeness of DarTalk employees.
Borne Fee
One of students' most frequent complaints is the monthly $15 fee DarTalk charges to keep a phone line operational in each residence hall room. In particular, students said it is unfair that frequently more than one student in a double or triple room pays $15 a month when only one phone line is available.
A plan that would address the $15 monthly fee could be incorporated into the housing contract fee in the future, according to Associate Treasurer of the College Win Johnson.
The monthly $15 students currently pay is used to keep residence hall lines operational and to fund the overall upkeep of a computer known as the "switch," Associate Director of Administrative Services Bill Barr said.
The switch is a computer system that provides a dial tone to telephone extensions and helps keep track of billing, he explained.
Johnson said he is "trying to seriously evaluate" a segment of a campaign platform of last year's Student Assembly President Jon Heavey '97 that suggested incorporating the $15 monthly charge for basic telephone service into student housing fees.
Last term, Heavey said he wanted to eliminate the "in-your-face, $15-every-month cash payment and include it in the cost of [Office of Residential Life] contracts."
"DarTalk has to exist and there is some cost to running a telephone company -- it can't be free," Heavey said.
Heavey said he would also like the monthly payment to be split among roommates, "so if you are living in a triple you are not paying $15 a piece," Heavey said.
Kathryn Greer '00 also said she did not think it was fair that at least one roommate had to have DarTalk in order to place any outside calls, which is the only reason she still has her DarTalk account.
"It is ridiculous to charge students living in the same room twice for one phone line," she said.
Barr said "no decisions have been made" about a possible change in billing.
The operational cost of the telephone system could be incorporated into another fee but it could not be eliminated, he said.
Although Barr said he doubts any new plan will be implemented by Fall term, he said the idea "has a lot of merits."
Barr said he is looking at other colleges and universities to study how they bill students for phone system use. Some institutions bill students the same way Dartmouth does, he said.
Barr added that some colleges charge a fee for establishing a phone account and maintenance of the system through housing costs.
Life after debit?
But another primary complaint of students -- that students are billed by declining balance account -- may not be addressed in the plan, Barr and Johnson both said.
"Just by changing where the cost is charged," Barr said, "won't change the system."
But students do not see it the same way.
"Whoever heard of a phone company that works as a debit account?" one student wrote in response to the survey.
"I would like to get billed for the calls I make rather than have to pay in advance for any calls I might make," William Scott '98 said.
Barr said the declining balance account is the easiest billing system to accommodate the Dartmouth plan.
"It is difficult when students are coming and going so often," Barr said. "By the time bills are made, the students may be off for two terms," which makes collecting the money very difficult.
Johnson said a non-debiting account would involve "a lot of collection and billing issues we would just as soon not to have to deal with."
The other world
The word "monopoly" occurred time and time again in students' replies to the survey.
"DarTalk is an absurd money-grubbing monopoly," one student wrote. Another said "students should have a choice" in their long distance carrier.
However, Barr said using DarTalk instead of dealing with an outside carrier is "advantageous" for students.
Before the College had its own phone system, Johnson said students dealt directly with AT&T. "The service wasn't very good," he said.
Each time a line had to be installed or discontinued students had to contact the local AT&T office in order to request service -- which often took two or three days, he said.
Johnson said the College having its own telephone company is "cheaper and faster" than dealing with AT&T."
The actual long distance rates that DarTalk charges have long remained a mystery and as a result, most students do not think they are receiving competitive rates.
Greer said she started the year with DarTalk but now charges her calls to a calling card. She said she looked at "difference in cost" when deciding to switch. "I felt like I was getting ripped off," she said.
Although rates vary according to the area students are calling, the general rule is that DarTalk customers receive a 10 percent discount off of AT&T Direct Dial rates, Barr said.
Barr added students who make calls using DarTalk, instead of a calling card, do not pay state taxes, saving another five percent over normal AT&T Dial Direct rates.
Although when students use calling cards the charges for each call are billed to another carrier, students must pay the monthly DarTalk fee because their phone line still needs to be active and could require maintenance, he said.
But Barr said he thinks the majority of students do not use calling cards and that calling card rates "are usually higher than what we are charging."
However, Sprint offers a calling card that charges 10 cents per minute for calls made between 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and all weekend long, which is lower than AT&T rates, according to the company's web site.
A long distance to travel
Only 37 percent of respondents to the poll said they agreed or strongly agreed that the DarTalk office is courteous to students.
"I usually find myself getting more confused when I go in to ask about or clarify something," one student said, and added that he thought the employees of the Dash and DarTalk offices were "very far from polite."
The employees "are often unfriendly and seem as though they couldn't care less about your problem or your business," one student said.
Fifty-eight percent of students strongly disagreed or disagreed that DarTalk provided a convenient service for students.
The DarTalk offices are located in Clement Hall, which is behind the Hopkins Center and far from most campus buildings, and some services can only be attended to from that office.
At the end of Spring term the Dash office required all students to bring a blue card indicating what was to be done with their phone accounts for Summer term.
Many students complained that the blue slips could not be sent via Hinman mail to the DarTalk office. Students suggested setting up a drop-off box at the Hinman boxes and having the information available on the web or in BlitzMail as alternatives.
Monthly bills can be paid at the Dash office in Thayer Dining Hall, but many students said they found it very inconvenient to pay their bills at the Dash office.
Students said it was "ridiculous" to go to the Dash office to pay the phone bill and have to go to another to find out how much individual telephone charges are.
"This is just another example of bureaucracy at work at the College and a waste of money," one student responded.
