Three weeks after students began moving into the dorms, more than half have not yet set up their voicemail boxes, and Computing and Information Services administrators say they do not know why many students never received repeated e-mail messages from CIS explaining how to do so.
As of last Wednesday, only 2,243 of the approximately 4,500 students to whom CIS sent the e-mail had activated their voicemail, according to CIS Operation Coordinator Denise Wynne.
Allison Laplatney '07 said she didn't know how to set up her Brown voicemail account, even though she had no problem doing it last year. Adding to her confusion was the fact that her roommate, Sarah Campen '07, had her voicemail set up two weeks ago.
Laplatney, who thought she was "just stupid" for not knowing how to set up her voicemail, is not alone. A majority of students on campus have not activated their voicemail accounts, and many say it's because they never received an e-mail instructing them how to do so.
CIS received an alphabetical list of all students living on campus from the Office of Residential Life and sent all the students on the list an e-mail notifying them of their voicemail box numbers and initial passwords, Wynne said. After a week, Associate Director of CIS Robert Perreira and his staff thought the number of voicemail accounts activated after the first week was low, so they began looking into the matter, according to Perreira.
Last Thursday, Perriera said, they resent the e-mail to every student on the ResLife list, even those who had already activated their accounts. But many students, including Laplatney, say they did not receive either e-mail. "I feel like I would've noticed it, since I've been worried about it," she said.
Some students may not have received the initial e-mail, sent out Aug. 31, because they had not yet activated their myAccounts, Perreira said. The myAccount system includes network login and e-mail information, and it is activated the first time a student logs onto the Brown network or sets up a Brown e-mail account.
But Laplatney is among an apparently large group of students who have activated their myAccounts and still have not received the second e-mail.
Perreira said it looks as if the problem may lie not in individual e-mail accounts but in mass e-mailing itself. "There's possibly something wrong with the e-mail process," he said.
According to Wynne, the CIS Help Desk has received about 150 calls and visits regarding voicemail accounts. From these calls, CIS determined the four main reasons that students had not activated their accounts, Perreira said - they never received the instructional e-mail, they deleted the e-mail, the e-mail was bounced back because their inboxes were over quota or they didn't activate their myAccounts in time to get the e-mail.
About 100 of the initial e-mail messages bounced back from inboxes that were over quota, Wynne said, but Perreira said students with full inboxes were later notified. In addition, these students were e-mailed again last Thursday.
"We better go further and find out why (students) didn't get (the e-mail), and I think that's where we are now," Perreira said.
He said he and his staff are looking into what may be keeping e-mails from reaching students. One possible problem may be that student computers have spam filters which block the mass e-mails from reaching them, Perreira said. But he noted that is only one idea and nothing has yet been determined definitively.
CIS administrators believe some students received the e-mail but chose not to activate their voicemail accounts because they do not use their dorm phones. Increased use of cell phones may have contributed to low levels of voicemail activation, Perreira said. Students who plan to use cell phones rather than landlines are more likely to delete or ignore any e-mails they received, and they are more likely not to have called CIS even if they didn't receive the e-mails, he said.
"I haven't even though about it. I didn't use my voicemail last year," said Cameron Scott '07. "I didn't even bother with (voicemail) this year because I have a cell phone."
Anna Lamut '05 says having a cell phone means she isn't rushing to activate her Brown-provided voicemail account.
"I have a cell phone - I don't really use the phone in my room. I'm planning on setting it up, but it's not pressing," Lamut said.
But many students do use University landlines, Perreira said. Normally, telecommunications clears out voicemail accounts that have not been set up 30 days after the initial e-mail is sent out, he said. Then, if students decide they do want to use their Brown voicemail, it will be reconnected for no additional charge. But this year, voicemail boxes will not be cleared after 30 days, which would be the end of this month, he said.
Perreira said students who did not receive an e-mail and would like to set up their voicemail should contact CIS.
Herald staff writer Jonathan Herman '07 and Herald senior staff writer Kira Lesley '07 can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.
