Penntrex gets rid of telephone RID codes

Penntrex "students of record" were not a happy lot. These were the unlucky people responsible for collecting money from roommates and paying their room's telephone bill each month. For them, the arrival of the Penntrex bill each month marked the beginning of a struggle to track down payments from roommates, whose crazy schedules and procrastinating ways sometimes made that seem like an impossible task. In some cases, it was so bad that students quarreling over the bill never managed to come to terms, instead relying on the Judicial Inquiry Officer to resolve the dispute for them. But now, those days are gone. Penntrex has abandoned the system of three-digit roommate identifcation codes, or RIDs, in favor of new six-digit private authorization codes, or PACs, which will allow Penntrex to bill students individually for their own long distance calls. One student in each dorm room must still sign on as the student of record to pay for certain services which cannot be itemized. These include the monthly line charge, voicemail, operator-assisted calls and collect calls. But Penntrex manager Darien Yamin believes the new system will make billing smoother for both students and Penntrex. He said long distance calls are the single biggest part of each phone bill, meaning the student of record will have to collect less money each month. Previously, the entire bill appeared on the student of record's bursar bill. Now, only the basic costs and his or her long distance charges will appear there. The other roommates' long distance charges will appear on their own bursar bills. Yamin said Penntrex adopted the new system partly as a result of complaints from students and parents about the difficulty in collecting money. But he said the new system does not offer RIDs, so Penntrex either had to adopt the PAC method or end itemizing long distance altogether. One advantage of the PAC, according to Yamin, is that the new method will require itemized long distance records. With RIDs, students could choose whether or not to have RIDs. Prior to the switch July 18, students could require callers using their phone to enter "20" and a three-digit RID before making long-distance calls. Long distance calls were broken down by RID in each bill. But even for phone lines with RID, residents did not always have to dial an RID code first and, moreover, the system would accept any three numbers after the "20." All of this made RIDs less than completely effective at itemizing long distance calls. But with the new system, every campus resident -- including students living in singles -- must use their PAC when making long-distance calls. After dialing "9" and the number, a double beep will prompt callers to enter their personal PACs. Unlike before, residents must always use their PAC and they may use only the code to which they are assigned. Unless a roommate tells others his or her PAC, students can no longer just key in random codes to call long distance from a friend's room. He said he realized students living in single room's might be annoyed at having no choice regarding PACs. But he said that with 75 percent of the 4200 Penntrex student lines using RIDs, there seemed to be sufficient demand. Yamin said the system has the ability to let students use their PACs from any phone on campus, but said Penntrex has no plans of implementing the option in the near future. He cited potential problems in tracking abuse. Penntrex will generate PACs for students once they or a roommate return the telephone activation form. Students can pick up their PACs at the Palestra during CUPID, and at Penntrex.

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