We live in an age of speed dialing and conference calling.

Our cellular phones have call waiting and our speaker phones have caller ID.

The rotary dial is extinct and voice dialing is coming our way. Telecommunication is getting faster and clearer and future possibilities are endless.

If only we had phone books.

The printing of this year’s campus directories has been delayed for at least a month, and there seem to be many potential problems as a result.

Think about the studious freshman in chemistry lecture that wants to call his or her study buddy but didn’t think to ask the number, only the name. Chalk up the midterm to the lack of a directory.

What about the hopeless romantic that dreams of a date with the girl he met the night before?

He was so proud of himself for remembering her name, only to find that it was useless without a phone book to go with it. Once again, romance and futility go hand in hand.

As our campus falls into a vicious downward spiral of academic and social failure, we wait for a messiah in the form of a campus directory.

All of us want to live in a land where everyone knows our name and our number, or at least has access to it.

But for now, the phones will remain silent and all of us will just have to do a better job of offering our numbers to everyone we meet.

After all, that perfect stranger may just be the one to save you on a test or treat you to the night of your life.