Directories are without numbers

The 1992-93 University student directories, scheduled to be distributed this week, mistakenly do not contain the local addresses and phone numbers of undergraduates living in University residences. College junior Morris Massel, publications manager of the Penn Student Agencies directory staff, said he does not know what is going to happen, but stressed that "whatever needs to be done will be taken care of." He said PSA may either distribute inserts with the information on them or republish the entire directory. Massel added that he does not know what money will be used to pay for correcting the directories. Student directories, which are a non-profit, free service, are paid for by PSA, Massel said. PSA recovers some of the money through advertising, and Massel said he does not know what will happen with advertisers. The directories, which are relied on by students University-wide, are supposed to include campus addresses and telephone numbers for all undergraduate and graduate students living on- and off-campus, as well as those students' home addresses. The 1992-93 directories list the home addresses for most students, but only the addresses and telephone numbers for undergraduates living off-campus. The listings for all graduate students are correct. PSA members and University Registrar Ron Sanders said they were unaware that the directories were printed with incomplete information until last night. After initially insisting that the directory had been printed correctly, Massel realized the mistake. He said that the problem came from the Registrar's Office, which, he said, must have supplied PSA with an incomplete computer print-out of the information it requested. Massel and Sanders said they would be looking into the defunct directories first thing this morning. "What [information] they sent me is what I send to print," Massel said. "[I'm] rather distressed." "Someone at the Registrar's Office didn't print what we asked," he continued. Sanders said that if, in fact, there was a computer malfunction, the mistake in the print-out should have been picked up by PSA. He said he has run the computer program many times before without problems. "I certainly don't know how that happened," Sanders said. "I would have expected someone to [have realized]." Massel said that PSA received students' information on September 4 from the Registrar's Office and that two weeks later the directories were printed. Members of the Undergraduate Assembly, which financed a section of the directory, said they were surprised by the incomplete directories. "I am extremely disappointed, but mess-ups do happen," Kirsten Bartok, UA vice chairperson, said. "We must take steps [to see] that this doesn't happen again."