Late last spring, Milligan began work on a new campus phone system. The project essentially required the purchase of a new phone switch and rewiring many campus buildings.
Though originally planned to be running for the fall 2002 semester registration, certain delays have set back that date.
“We still do not have a firm date, but things appear to have been progressing better than expected over the past two weeks,” said Mike Smith, director of information technology at Milligan. “We are within a couple of weeks of making the switch.”
The new system will feature voice mail for every room. Smith recommends the use of these new voice mail systems over standard answering machines.
“If you have an answering machine in your room we would recommend that you use the voice mail system instead,” Smith said. “Voice mail allows callers to leave messages when the line is busy whereas answering machines do not.”
Another added feature to the system is the addition of caller id on all capable phones.
After the new phone system is in place, calls Bristol and Kingsport will no longer incur long distance charges. However in Elizabethton, only calls to city and county offices will be without cost to students.
Perhaps the biggest change with the
implementation is the new telephone numbers for all student housing. Faculty and
staff numbers will remain the same after the system switch.
The new system will work much like a large office building. Calls to students from off-campus phones will be dialed through a main access number, (423) 461-8300. The caller will be prompted to enter the room extension for the appropriate student.
The extension system is formulaic; each is a four-digit number, the first digit representing a dormitory.
The smaller dormitories and MSA will all begin with 1, then a respective number indicating which dorm is being called. One is the A-frame, 2 is Williams, 3 is Quillen, 4 is Kegley and 5 is MSA. The last two remaining digits for these smaller dorms will be the suite or room number.
The first digit for Hart Hall is 2, Sutton is 4 and Webb is 5. The last three digits are the room number.
While off-campus callers will need to dial the main access number followed by the room’s extension, intercampus callers will need to only dial the four-digit extension.
After the system is implemented, students are reminded to inform contacts of the new phone numbers.
The IT department plans to have informative booklets on the system available in their offices.
During the system switch, students are forewarned that phone service may be lost for short amounts of time. During this transition, if phone service is not returned within a reasonable time, students can call the IT Help Desk at 461-8704 to report the problem.