Dorms get new prefix

Shawntaye Hopkins

Students moving into the dorms next year will have to say goodbye to their 745 telephone numbers and hello to 936.

The telephone numbers in the dorms will get a new prefix during the summer because 745 numbers are running out.

Dorm telephone numbers will begin with 936, while all other campus departments and the community college will continue using the 745 prefix.

To reach a dorm number on campus, a six will have to be dialed before the four-digit extension. To reach campus departments, a five will have to be dialed before the extension.

Bardstown sophomore Kalisa Hauschen said she thinks she will be able to remember more telephone numbers under the new system.

“It will be easier because I will be able to separate the numbers to the dorm rooms,” she said.

Edwin Craft, associate director of telecommunications, said the conversion is happening over the summer because fewer students will be in the dorms.

The university has a bulk of 745 numbers, but several are being used through Bowling Green, said Richard Kirchmeyer, vice president for Information Technology.

“When we started with 745 numbers, we were already in the hole,” he said.

Craft said the numbers the university currently has are all that are left.

A growing number of faculty and staff have contributed to a need for more telephone numbers, Kirchmeyer said.

The new prefixes will allow for Western to possibly give students two numbers in their dorm rooms, he said.

The 936 numbers are on reserve and Western is already paying BellSouth for them, but Craft was unable to determine the exact cost.

If more 745 numbers are needed before summer, there are temporary measures that can be taken.

Elevator extensions could be used temporarily, Craft said.

But he said the temporary extension numbers won’t be necessary.

“I don’t think they’ll run out,” he said.

Reach Shawntaye Hopkins at [email protected]