Penn State administrators are looking into removing dorm phone lines to increase cost efficiency for students and the university.

Tom Gibson, associate vice president of auxiliary and business services, said it costs $2 million each year to maintain dorm lines, and because of the popularity of cell phones, officials are no longer sure the dorm lines are being used efficiently. "This certainly is not going to happen next year. There are tremendous amounts of twists and turns to it before we do anything," Gibson said.

But students without cell phones said they do not want to be forced to buy an expensive accessory.

Ishita Prakash (graduate-premedicine) said dorms without phone lines could be a safety hazard, adding that some students cannot afford to purchase a cell phone. "I don't even know why they are considering it," she said.

Mike Waldhier (freshman-information sciences and technology) said there will always be students who do not have cell phones. "Cell phones can get lost, broken or stolen, and without a dorm phone to fall back on you'd have to rely on friends," he said.

The number of students who own cell phones has increased from 26 percent in 1999 to 78 percent in 2003, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the Student Monitor, a market-based research company.

Gibson said before any decisions can be made, Penn State must do a lot of research, including monitoring the progress of peer institutions and surveying the number of residents who use the phones. "We are looking to our peers in the Big Ten, and everyone is talking, but no one has any answers," he said.

A task force to examine dorm phone use at Penn State will meet Friday to identify important questions surrounding the issue, said Fraser Grigor, head of the task force and the associate director of special projects for Housing and Food Services. He added that it was too premature to identify any possible developments.

Because of the increasing number of students who own cell phones, dorm phone lines have already been affected. Last spring Penn State terminated its 10-year contract with AT&T. Beginning this fall, students were unable to dial long distance from their dorm room without a calling card.

Linda Witt, the university's manager of long-distance plans, said that less than 10 percent of student residents were using the long-distance service before it was terminated.

Tim Culbreth (freshman-forestry) said he hasn't plugged in his dorm phone and doesn't foresee using it at all this year. "I'd be fine with the removal of dorm lines," he said. "I'm already paying enough cell phone long distance charges without paying the university more money."