The emergency phones on campus are ignored by many students on a normal day at Iowa State, but in an emergency they are essential.

Loras Jaeger, director of the Department of Public Safety, said he feels that emergency phones are great. “The more the better! Even if they aren’t used, it establishes a sense of security for the Iowa State community, especially the women on campus,” Jaeger said.

“They are installing the 11th emergency phone today, near the Iowa State Center,” Jaeger said.

“It is also important that there are enough public phones throughout the campus, which can be used for emergency, long distance and campus calling,” he said.

The expense of installing the phones is covered by the Office of the President. If toward the end of the fiscal year the president’s office has money left over, then that money is given to selected programs at ISU.

This year some of the money was used to install more emergency phones throughout the ISU campus.

John Kingland, director of telecommunications, said the total expense of the emergency phones is about $23 per month.

Randy Larabee of Faculty Planning and Management, Utility Administration, said the average cost for installation is $5,000 per emergency phone. The cost of installing the phones also depends on the location.

“The cost depends on how far the phone lines are from the location, the amount of trenching that needs to be done, the amount of concrete that is used, and other constructional costs,” Larabee said.

“We don’t get an astounding number of calls from the emergency phones,” said Lt. Lowell Huttins of the DPS. The greatest number of calls come from the stadium.

When an emergency phone is used, a uniformed official from the DPS goes to the scene. It takes approximately two to three minutes for an officer to arrive at almost any location on campus, Huttins said. The number of cars and officials sent out to the location depends upon how critical the situation is.

Jolita Anderson, a sophomore in pre-business administration, said she feels that more emergency phones should not be installed. “I haven’t personally used the emergency phones, and I don’t know anyone who has used them. But I think that if they were to be taken out, then people would need them.

“Installing more would be a waste of money because the ones that we have now don’t get used,” she said.