PAGE TV,O Switchboard Swiftness Students' Talk-a-thons f Keep ! Dormitory Operators Busy Students who complain about the telephone lines always being busy at night take notice. On an average, taken from 6 to 10 p.m., 6000 calls are completed by the University residence halls operators. According to statistics, each of the eight operators on duty connects three calls a min-! rite. This is an average taken from a normal week. Students for the most part three-to-five-minule conversation) , limit for the busy lines. IS Calls at One Time Edna Shirk, chief operator at the University for 18 years, ex-: plains that each operator is able to handle 15 calls at one time. Many times during the evening three and four operators have their boards filled and cannot do anything until someone finishes a call. Miss Shirk said. Long conversations that tie up the operators also puls more pres sure on other operators with the result That at times there is a delay in connections, she said. One of the main peeves of the operators is students who place fake long-distance calls. The chief operator estimated that one-- third of the long distance calls- 1 placed after a vacation period are; faked m which the student makes a collect person-to-person call! askin, for himself at home. ‘ No-Charge Calls Home His parents would then know he has arrived at school safely; and the call would not cost any-; thing because it was not com-! pleted. Miss Shirk, however, cau-’ tioned students that Bell Tele phone Co. may consider plac-J ing a fee on collect person-to jterson calls whether or not they are completed. Although exciting experiences of the operators are few and far, between, one occurred two years' ago. A small fire broke out in Osmond Laboratory and the emer- gencv call was placed to the oper- T,.. ! ator. However, for some undeter- I iUST&OS /ViQKw ! mined reason, the switchboard mechanism failed, Q A The alert operator nevertheless O 11rillcnTb 3n „ d Three new staff anpointments! placed the emergency cal) down- , , , , . „ • town on a separate phone directly ave keen approved by the Uni-] connected with the downtown versity Board of Trustees, Hne. Dr. Chester W. Hitz has been; Miss Shirk recalk many in-i®. B ®!* Professor of pomology inj stances when she placed calls Department ox Horticulture,; President Dwight D. Eisenhower! e " ec * lve while Dr. Milton SJ Eisenhower ; Dr. Hitz is now associate pro was president of the University, ! lessor of pomology at the Uni-: One interesting feature of the (versity of Delaware. He received, telephone setup is that the fall;his bachelor of science degree semester is busier for the opera- from the University of Missouri tors titan the spring semester, and his master of sciencfe and doc- Miss Shirk accounts this to the tor of philosophy'degrees from many fall activities and to new! the University of Maryland. He freshmen becoming acquainted served four years in the army, with the University. ' i Dr. Paolo Gallitelli has been Commenting on student be- appointed a research associate .in havior and courtesy on the tele- the X-ray and crystal analysis phones, the chief operator saidiiaboratory of the Department of that general cooperation has been; Physics. He is a professor of min better than usual this semester. eraJogy at the University of Mo- She said that she, together with l dena in Italy and received his operators, enjoy the work and, doctor’s degree from that institu for the most part, overlook prankstjon. and non-cooperative spirit of Another new research associate some studems. ; n tiiat laboratory is Frederick M. Wild Rumors Spread .Lovell, of Wales. He received his One of the busiest days for the bachelor of science degree in phy operators was a Sunday several s j cs an