Telecommunications package: boon or bust?

The addition of cable jacks to dorm rooms was one of the most pleasant changes to greet students back from summer. While not all are happy with Yale's new telecommunications package, the great majority are finding it to be very beneficial. Over four years, Yale students will save hundreds of dollars with the new scheme, which covers voice mail, basic cable TV, telephone, and Internet connections for a flat rate of $200 per student per year.

"Initially, I thought it wasn't a good idea since we were paying more than we would have before. The convenience of having everything paid for and working when we got here, though, outweighs the higher price. Besides, only a few of us are really paying more per room," Alexa Romberg, JE '00, said about her telecommunications bill.

Romberg shares a suite with seven other roommates. According the previous Yale plan, Romberg and her suitemates would have split a $270 charge per phone line. She would have had to pay an additional $90 for an ethernet connection, $14 for installation and $2 per month for voice mail, and $5 per month for basic cable. The costs would have totaled $193.75 per person in the eight person suite for the academic year.

The Provost's Office used a fairly scientific method to calculate the $200 flat fee. Essentially, the price for providing the services per person, and per room where applicable, was summed, then divided by the total number of student subscribers.

Perhaps the biggest complaint students have had about the telecommunications package is the lack of such cable staples as ESPN and MTV. Drew Pomerantz, PC '99, finds that without access to those two channels, his cable connection is of little use to him. "I would rather have ESPN than all the other channels combined," he said. "I don't see why the University would give us cable without ESPN and MTV, the two most popular channels."

According to Associate Provost Lloyd Suttle, the Provost's Office was caught in a dilemma as to where to draw the line for cost to students. Though the University recognized the popularity of such channels, it also had to consider whether it would be worth it to pass them on to the students.

"We wanted to offer all the students a package that almost all would need and at the same time keep costs down," Suttle said.

John Meeske, dean of administrative affairs, reiterated that costs had to be kept down. He revealed that if students are dissatisfied with some of the services offered, there will be a chance for the University to reorganize the services it currently provides in three years. "We're on a three year contract. After that, we could go to some other contractor or talk to Comcast about providing a package that better meets students' needs," Meeske said.

One of the most popular aspects of the new package is that the very students who use these services will probably not be paying for them. Last fall, the Yale College Council asked the Provost's Office to establish a bundled fee for telecommunications so that it could appear on students' bursar bills.

"We wanted to make all the telecommunications-related things appear on the bursar bill as a single charge," YCC member Eric Peterson, SY '99, said. "For many students, parents pay whatever appears on the bursar bill but other expenses are left up to the student. For these students, the separate fees for voice mail, phone line, and Internet hook-ups were additional costs that were pretty much essential." Peterson and Jeremy Fain, DC '99, made the initial proposal for the bundled payment to the Provost's Office on behalf of the YCC.

The bundled fee actually helped bring down the total cost of the telecommunications package by 10 percent. "We were able to reduce the administrative overhead quite significantly by not having to advertise or rework systems to suit individual students...Since now all students have access to all these communications services...we could then pass on the savings to all students," Suttle said.

The University maintains that it is not making any profit from the new multimedia package. Suttle pointed out that cable TV accounted for only $20 of the $200 overall telecommunications fee. "Our primary objective is to give students access to all the various media that are becoming essential in everyday life," he explained.

Photos by Patrick McGarvey.

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