Word: hsto
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...local, University, and 800-number calls completely free, with termbill charges to begin the following year. This shift comes as Harvard outsources responsibility for long distance calling and billing to the telephone company Paetec, which will assume many of the functions of the Harvard Student Telephone Office (HSTO...
This change was long overdue, and we applaud those on the Student Affairs Committee of the Undergraduate Council who helped to broker the change in service. After being approached by the HSTO, the representatives explained the numerous student complaints about HSTO’s service. Students sometimes recieved no monthly bills only to be hit with a walloping balance after six months because of the phone service’s inefficient account management; students were charged exorbitant rates to use Harvard’s long distance plan; students were charged multiple times for the same service; students who have...
...five times as much for their phone service as each of the neighbors in a nearby five-person sweet. Additionally, by including the costs in termbills, the telephone office will be far more likely to collect the payments successfully. Currently, both because of inefficient account management and student delinquency, HSTO spends much time and money pursuing a number of students who owe hefty balances. Of course, students (and their parents) ought to know how much they are paying for phone service, and it should be enumerated separately on the termbill. But overall, a flat rate paid up front will both...
These sweeping changes herald the end of HSTO, and of its mismanagement of the Harvard phone system. Phone service can only improve from here...
...Thus, HSTO is an endangered species, and I guarantee that within five years it will exist in a completely different guise. It simply cannot continue to operate as it does currently. But there are advantages to having a centralized system for University telephones, including the ability to dial everywhere on campus with a 5-digit number and the ability to have a 911 option that, unlike a cell phone, can automatically locate you for emergency services. Creating a new vision for HSTO that includes these services but costs students much less will take time and energy, but a first step...