Students explore telephone options to avoid roommate By LAURA M. BOSCARINO Collegian Staff Writer Michele Wright wishes she never put the phone bill she shares with three roommates under her name. Two months ago, a roommate charged $1,600 on the bill and fled town. Now, Wright is paying the consequences. "He wasn't authorized to use the phone for this kind of purpose," Wright said of her room mate who called 900 numbers. Wright said she traced the calls through various phone compa nies across the country. Wright's local phone company, Bell Atlantic, has been trying to help her avoid paying her roommate's charges, but ultimately, the long distance phone companies affiliated with the 900 numbers have control over the situation. Steve Neff, a sales consultant for Bell Atlantic, said in situations such as Wright's, Bell Atlantic would contact the long distance companies and ask them to drop the billing charges. However, if they choose not to drop the charges, the long distance company deals directly with the customer and Bell Atlantic no longer has any role in the process. Some long distance phone companies, such as AT&T, have policies regarding 900 charges. "We do give a one-time adjustment in 900 numbers, but if the calls appear again, you'd be responsible for them," said Angela Johnson, a customer service representative for AT&T. Johnson said she deals with a lot of customers who have large phone bills resulting from 900 numbers. Wright has been able to get some of the charges terminated, but not nearly enough prompting her to hire a lawyer. 1 7 , Nat l'a‘ Boot Area's Largest Selection of Ladies & Mens Boots "TONY LAMA," "NOCONA" "JUSTIN" and OTHERS Western Clothing, Accessories and Dance Fashions 3450 W. College Ave. (Rt. 26 South) ' T-W-TH 11-5:30 , 1 - FRI 1-5:30 SAT 11-5 814-237-8725 - I / I Y i 5; 4 1 1 0 0. rilA Stud. Com Fair Sponsored by Penn State's Campus Computer Reseller Microcomputer Order C (814) 865-2100/(800) 251- http://moc.cac.psu.edu When it comes to phone bills.and roommates, in many cases, the two do not mix. Although most students don't run into the kind of prob lems Wright has, the phone bill is a source of tension for a lot of roommates. "Unless you sit down with your roommate ahead of time, there's going to be a problem (financially)," said Forest Wortham, assistant director of off-campus living. Wortham said any time roommates have to deal with bills, there are always problems. The best way, for roommates to avoid financial prob lems is by talking as soon as they move in together, he said. Otherwise, Wortham said, roommates face ruined friendships, a hostile living environ ment, possible future credit problems and loss of basic phone services. Amy Wilkins (senior-psychology) said she has had her long distance access shut off four times in the past year because the roommate respon sible for paying the bill never does. "It makes me very mad it's frustrating when I try to call home and I find I have no long distance," Wilkins said. Because of this ongoing situation, Wilkins said living conditions become tense when the bill comes. However, there are alternatives for simplify ing the phone bill problem. AT&T provides Call Manager, a free service that gives each caller a code to make long distance calls. At•the end of the month, each caller gets his or her own bill, Johnson said. Sandra Park (junior-English) said she and her roommates use private codes that they punch into the phone every time they make a long dis tance call. Park said this system has worked out fine because their bills are all divided up. Polls: Clinton By MIKE MOKRZYCKI Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON, D.C. The voter anger that spurred the Republican revolution is turning to anxiety, splitting the new GOP coalition and energizing Democ rats, according to a broad new study of American opinion. Discontented Americans pin much of the blame for their wor ries on Congress and little on Pres ident Clinton, the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press found in a survey released yester day. Totigress has become the focal point of people's complaints, even among Republicans," said poll director Andrew Kohut. "As for Bill Clinton, the buck isn't stopping there." Fears about major expenses including health care, college tuition, housing and retirement have risen significantly across the political spectrum in the past 18 months, according to the telephone survey of 2,000 adults nationwide conducted Oct. 25-30. And those concerns appear to be costing Republicans support among independents, a swing vot ing bloc that helped vault the GOP to control of Congress in 1994. While many students are exploring the long distance billing options, some still do it the old fashioned way. Tamer Inanc and his roommates gather to divide their phone bill once a month. And, Inanc (graduate-electrical engineering) said there's usually a problem because some times no one remembers what phone call they made. "No one claims the expensive calls," Inanc said. Last month, it took an hour and a half for the roommates to find out who made a $3 call. For now, this process will have to do because Inanc and his roommates can't afford to have separate phone lines. "We heard about getting extra phone lines but it'll cost $BO or more and nobody wants to do that," Inanc said. Phone lines are installed by local phone com panies and cost at least $4O, Neff said. While separate phone lines seem extreme for many students, the calling card is a more feasi ble solution. "Get a card, get something where you are not responsible for your roommate," Wortham said. Holly Garlitz said she would have preferred to have a calling card in her last living arrange ment. "It was just a pain," said Garlitz (junior-early childhood education). "I sometimes think indi vidual calling cards would be the way to go if you're living with•people you've never known before." Despite the fact that the calling card is more expensive to use than regular long distance, Jody Lapham said it's worth it. "I use my calling card to make it easier," said Lapham (senior-engineering) said. "It's a pain to divide up the bill." OP suffers while gains popularity Clinton, meanwhile, gets stronger support in the new poll from all kinds of Democrats than GOP congressional leaders do from all but the most fiscally conserva tive Republicans. Other recent national polls also have found public sentiment shift ing away from the Republican Con gress and rising approval ratings for Clinton amid sharp debate over Medicare and other elements of the GOP's balanced-budget proposals. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says GOP leaders haven't paid much attention to the polls because the results are skewed by the Democrats' "totally false" charges about Republicans' budget ideas. "When people learn the facts, they are overwhelmingly for our budget, and we're convinced that over the next six or eight months, they'll learn the facts," Gingrich said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." 42 percent of respondents rated Congress favorably and 55 percent unfavorably, almost an exact reversal from the ratings given in a Times Mirror poll in July 1994. Republican congressional lead ers' ratings have plunged especial ly sharply since August, now stand ing at 36 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval. 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