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BY IAN YARETT

In print | February 16, 2006

Information Technology Services has decided on a replacement telephone system that will allow each student to continue to have an individual phone line.

Information Technology Services (ITS) began their search for a new system after the manufacturer of the current 15 year-old one informed the college that their system had reached “end of life” and that maintenance would no longer be available after August 2006.

The new telephone service, manufactured by Cisco Systems, will cost approximately $1.8 million and will be installed this June pending final approval by Swarthmore’s Board of Managers, said Mark Dumic, Associate Director of Networking, Systems and Telecommunications.

The system will be ready for students this fall. Students and faculty who are on campus over the summer will have access to it following installation.

According to Dumic, this new telephone system will be Internet Protocol (IP) based and will use the college network. Much like the old system, it will provide each student with a private residential phone line and voicemail capabilities.

In response to the upcoming expiration of the maintenance contract for the old system, Dumic said the committee managing the phone replacement project has considered many options, such as providing only one shared phone line per room or boosting cell phone reception and eliminating room phones completely. However, ITS has opted for the more cost-effective way to address student concerns by implementing the Cisco system.

“ITS and the PBX committee met with students in a number of different venues over the past year. We heard the concerns that most students had about not having a phone line,” Dumic said. “Those considerations and a favorable cost proposal prompted us to pick what everyone has consistently seen as the best student option … a phone line per student.”

Dumic said that with the new system students will have to supply their own telephones at a one-time cost of $10-25, or they can bring one from home.

In addition to having their own extension and voicemail, students will have access to additional features, such as caller ID. Students will also be able to use fax machines as well as access and manage voicemail messages online through e-mail or a web browser.

ITS will supply students with a list of recommended phones for use on the new system, although theoretically any phone should work.

Dumic also explained that Internet telephone services such as Skype would work over the college network, so students would have that option as well.

“We are really giving the students a lot of choice — they can use the college phone, a cell phone or computer based phone services,” Dumic said.

Tom Evnen ‘07, Student Council Co-President, was impressed by the outcome of the search for the new telephone system. “I think this is the best of possible outcomes,” he said. "I’m glad that this system was within our budget and I think the administration has dealt with this in a responsible manner."

Other features of the Cisco IP phone system include a way of flagging harassing phone calls and reporting them to Public Safety at any time. Another mechanism will alert Public Safety whenever 911 is dialed from a college phone. According to Dumic, this will allow Public Safety to know the source of the call and respond appropriately.

According to Dumic, another feature that made the Cisco system the best solution for the school’s needs was that it will have “redundancy,” meaning that its main components and servers will be distributed redundantly between Parrish and Beardsley computer rooms.

“This would allow the system to continue functioning in the event of water damage, power failure, fire or other disaster rendering either computer room unusable,” Dumic said. “Any major component can fail without causing an interruption in service.”

In addition to the new telephone system, the voice recognition-based directory service will also be replaced.

According to Dumic, the current voice recognition directory was installed about five years ago. Since then, the technology has improved significantly.

The new system will also have a dictionary of common nicknames built in, increasing its effectiveness in selecting the requested name from the college directory.

Myrt Westphal, Associate Dean of Student Life and member of the committee that chose the new system, was pleased with the Cisco solution. “I think it’s basically a pretty sweet deal,” she said.

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