University Daily Kansan / Thursday, September 19, 1991
9
New phone answering system links students with registrar
By Alexander Bloemhof
Kansan staff writer
A recorded female voice has been answering telephone calls at the University registrar's office since 5 p.m. yesterday.
In cooperation with the department of telecommunications, the office of the University registrar has developed a database of people who call the office at 864-4422.
The service provides information about six areas: certification forms and transcripts, enrollment, address changes, diplomas, degree and grade verification, resiliency information and admissions.
People with questions in one of these areas can press the appropriate button on their touch-one telephone and will be connected with recording that provides answers to most routine calls. You can use Nademacher, assistant registrar.
The service will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Rich Morrell, University registrar,
said he knew that some people did not like systems like this because they thought they were impersonal.
"A lot of times, you get criticized for using technology instead of people," Morrell said. "My position is that you have to use technology to free human resources to truly help students who have real problems."
Rademacher said that people who would rather talk to a person could do so by pressing zero at any time during the recording.
People with rotary phones must hold until the introductory recording is finished, Rademacher said. They auto-registered and connected with a receptionist afterward.
The service will cost the office $100 a month.
"I think it's worth it, considering the reinein up of our staff." Rademacher was.
The office is providing the service on a trial basis for at least one month, Rademacher said.
"We have the trial phase to find out whether people like it and where we
get the most calls," he said. "I don't want people to be turned off. I want people to be turned on by the system."
The office of student financial aid has been using a similar service since February 1991.
Diane Del Buono, director of financial aid, said she thought the service had been a success so far.
he received 17,000 calls for the month of August," Del Buono said. "The service has allowed us to respond to callers who need personal service for their questions.
"There are some people who are not satisfied because it’s different and not personal. But others are pleased because we are able to handle more."
The voice that answers 864-4422 manager for telecommunications.
She has helped set up the auto-attendance financial aid and the registrar's office.
"The attendant has helped provide information that's repeated information to many, many callers," she said.
AT&T's failure to respond to alarm warning causes nationwide airport, telephone problems
TheAssociatedPress
NEW YORK - Technicians failed to react to alarms warning of trouble that led to a telephone failure and air traffic control disruption that delayed hundreds of flights nationwide, AT&T said yesterday.
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. blamed a power disruption at a phone-switching center in Manhattan for the problem, which virtually closed three airports for several hours Tuesdaynight.
Consolidated Edison, the local electric utility, asked AT&T to use internally generated power at the station for a new generation of heat-treated heavy energy demand.
Power rectifiers, devices that are supposed to change the station's power from AC to DC failed, and the station began operating on battery power, which set off alarms, Joseph Nacchio, an A&T vice president, said.
Two technicians and a supervisor did nothing in response to the alarms, which went off for six hours, Nacchio said.
"If anyone heard them and whether anyone responded to them, that's what we're investigating," he said.
Circuits that carry flight data between airport computers did not work, and controllers were forced to describe flight patterns by telephone. said Federal Aviation Administration representative Duncan Pardue.
Critics asked why no backup was in place for the air traffic control system. AT&T said a backup under construction would be ready within a month.
"A single point failure should not be capable of bringing down the majority of the FAA's communication capability for the air Line Pilots Association.
More than 200 flights were disrupted at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York and at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, most of which passengers most backlogged flights were cleared by yesterday morning.
The power failure also cut off half of AT&T's long-distance phone traffic into and out of New York City.
country. Airport officials in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul reported delays.
The trouble began when AT&T switched to internal power at the switching station, which directs phone lines to AT&T's long-distance network.
The company said that when power rectifiers failed, AT&T went on backup battery power, which lasted for six hours.
The effects rippled through the
When AT&T tried to shift back to commercial power, engineers discovered the power rectifiers were not working, the company said.
If telephone circuits fail, FAA computers are supposed to switch data to another router. This day's failure of the impossibly fast AA representation Fred Farrar said.
FAA officials planned to meet with AT&T to discuss ways to prevent a recurrence. Farrar said.
Tony Dresden, representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said main and backup systems should run on separate power sources to prevent such problems.
THE KANSAS AND BURGE UNIONS OPEN HOUSE SEPTEMBER 25-26
45th Birthday Celebration
Join the Kansas and Burge Unions in celebrating the 45th Birthday of the KU Bookstores and also the "Sandy" Jayhawk!
Watch the Kansan for details
Drawing Entry Form
Name ___
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KUID ___
Return to the KU Bookstores by September 26,1991 Kansas and Burge Unions Staff Not Eligible
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