Eastern will invest almost $20,000 in replacing the majority of the EIU Code Blue Emergency Phones throughout campus.

Clay Hopkins, the director of telecommunications, said the original 19 phones are aging and need to be replaced after the 20 years they have been in service.

“We’ve replaced and refurbished the phones over time, but all the phones are getting beyond refurbishing at this point,” he said. “It’ll be the same system, just a newer model.”

There are 21 emergency phones on campus at this point, but Hopkins said two of them were installed just last year and will not need to be replaced at this time.

“We also have a new one going in at Pemberton Hall for a total of 22,” he said.

Hopkins said he was able to place a rush order on the new phones and is hopeful they will be able to install them this week.

Currently, three of the phones have been removed and taped up.

“The other phones are still in working order,” Hopkins said.

Officers of the University Police Department discovered the out-of-service phones after performing a weekly check on each of the locations.

“They then get reported to us for repairs, if needed,” he said.

Dan Nadler, the vice president for student affairs, sent out an email to student senate members Wednesday concerning the phones.

“Based on the age and the seriousness of the problems we are experiencing, a decision has been made to replace the original 19 code blue emergency phones installed approximately 20 years ago,” he wrote in the email.

The price of the phones has doubled since the original installation 20 years ago.

“Twenty years ago, they were in the $500 range for just the phones themselves,” Hopkins said. “Now they’re $1,040 apiece.”

Though the telephone company has been able to refurbish the phones over the years, Hopkins said it is getting to the point where they simply cannot be repaired or returned to the company.

Dave Crockett, the interim director of Facilities, Planning and Management, said FPM does have some involvement with the upkeep of the poles, but the telecommunications department handles most of the upkeep.

“(FPM) does take work orders from Hopkins and UPD if there is a light out or something and we need to make repairs, but that’s really our only involvement with those devices,” he said. 

When a passerby presses the button on an emergency phone, the call is sent to the 911 center by the Coles County Memorial Airport.

“They dispatch our police officers after a call is received,” Hopkins said.

Each emergency phone is identified in the system separately so the officers know which phone was activated.

Hopkins said they have not received any complaints about the three poles that are out of service, and he attributes it to the widespread use of cell phones.

“(The poles) really aren’t used much anymore,” he said. “However, the university has the investment in them, and they want to keep them.”

Hopkins said he believes the phones most likely are not used for their intended purposes in the past few years.

“I’d assume the phones are used more for pranks than for anything else, especially after the bars close and people are on their way home,” Hopkins said.

If there is an emergency, Hopkins said students are more likely to dial 911 on their cell phones than go to an emergency pole.

“The poles were used much more when they were first put in, but in the more recent years there have been more prank calls than anything else,” he said.

 Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].