Wrong number gi
By Monica Auld
Never has the number 8 been
so important to students here at
Capitol Campus.
During the recent snowstorm,
many students attempted to
call our weather “hotline” to
see if classes were cancelled at
944-(or is it 948?)6000. Many of
those students found themselves
talking with Jere Yingst or Jim
Capp. Who, you say? That’s
what we said too.
The telephone number
944-6000 belongs to the Forth
Dimension, a computer-video
games distributor in the local
area. Whenever Mother Nature
sees fit to dump that white stuff
on us, Yingst gets frustrated
because students assume that
all our campus phone numbers
begin with 944.
“During that blizzard in
February, we received about 75
calls from students asking
about cancelled classes at
Capitol Campus. After awhile, I
called the school campus rela
tions office to find out what all
the fuss was about.”
Yingst is in a position where
he cannot change his phone
number because he risks losing
business and money he has
already invested in stationery,
business cards, and catalogs.
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So, I decided to see if
something could be done here
at Capitol to relieve the situa
tion. According to Claire
Nissley, secretary for the Per
sonnel and Business Services,
the University would face the
same set of problems Yingst
does.
“Besides that, the entire
school is on a phone system
HOURS*
Thurs., Fri.,
Sat.: 1-8 pm
San.: 1-5
Phone 944-4504
students
ves phony connections
known as Dimension. We would
have to rearrange the whole
phone set up to fix just one
phone, and that’s just not prac
tical.”
In addition to his aggravation
with the weather number here,
Yingst also has to field calls in
tended for the Phil Donahue
show. You see, in a different
area code, (312), 944-6000 is the
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response number for the
Donahue show. Some callers
don’t understand that
“Donahue” is taped well in ad
vance, and only residents of
Chicago are able to call in.
“This gets to be really in
teresting sometimes. For exam
ple, one show that dealt with
nuclear power brought tremen
dous response for obvious
reasons .Our switch board lit up
like a Christmas tree.”
If we get a large number of
people calling in, we get tired of
telling them ‘we’re not the
Donahue show. So, we put them
on the speaker phone and let
them spout off. If they ask us if
they’re on the air, we tell them,
‘No, these shows are taped. Phil
listens to the conversations and
is he likes them, we’ll give you
a call.’ It adds spice to our day
and eliminates some of the
monotony.”
It seems that there is little
that can be done to alleviate the
case of the mistaken phone
number. If Jere Yingst and his
cohorts can cope with the
students who can’t seem to
shake the 944 habit, this confu
sion will continue to thrive. In
the meantime, the next time
you “reach out and touch
someone,” be sure you know
what buttons to push.
I
B