Telephone System and Features

The telephone system that Concordia University currently uses is a ROLM 9751 with the PhoneMail feature.  This provides each residence hall student, faculty member and staff member with their own DID (direct inward dial) telephone number and personal voice mail box.  On-campus, extension to extension calls are placed by simply dialing the last four digits of the appropriate telephone number.

Residence hall phones include a line for each student in the room, a 911 button that connects directly to Campus Security, a Message Waiting button, and Hold, Connect, and Transfer buttons.  For a description of the Message Waiting feature, please see the PhoneMail section below.

HOLD allows you to temporarily hold a line, either to take a call on another line or to attend to another matter without disconnecting your caller.  To reconnect, press the line button of the call being held.

TRANSFER allows you to transfer a call to another extension or to the operator.  Press TRANSFER, dial the extension number, announce caller (if desired), and hang up.

CONNECT allows you to connect to a camped-on call (see below), to reconnect with a call during the transferring process, or to alternate between two calls.

Other convenient features include:

AUTOMATIC CAMP-ON:  Allows you to stay on the line to wait for a busy extension to become free. As soon as the extension is free, your call rings the extension.

CALLBACK CAMP-ON:  Calls you back with a long ring when the busy extension becomes free.  Listen for a busy signal, press CAMP, hang up.  To cancel: get dial tone, press CAMP, hang up.

CALL FORWARDING:  Allows you to have your calls ring at another extension or go directly to PhoneMail.  Get a dial tone, press FWD, dial destination extension number (3198 for PhoneMail), hang up.  To cancel from original extension: get dial tone, press FWD, hang up.  Or, if you've changed rooms and need to cancel the forward from your new location, dial the original extension from the line to which it was forwarded.

SAVE and REPEAT:  Allows you to save a number you have dialed so you can redial the number later by simply pressing the SAVE/RPT button.  To Save: get dial tone, dial extension or outside number, press SAVE/RPT, hang up.  To Redial: get dial tone, press SAVE/RPT.

CHANGE THE RING TONE on your phone by pressing * 5 7 2, select ring tone (1-8), hang up.

PhoneMail

PhoneMail is the on-campus voice mail system. Each student has a PhoneMail box capacity of eight new and saved messages.  To access PhoneMail, dial x3198 or press the MSG WTG button on your phone.  Off-campus access is obtainable by dialing 708-209-3198.  Accessing your personal PhoneMail box requires the use of a password.  When accessing your box for the first time, or after moving to a new extension, your password will be the same as the extension.  TO PREVENT UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO YOUR PHONEMAIL BOX, IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU CHANGE THIS PASSWORD TO ONE THAT ONLY YOU KNOW (see instructions under "Mailbox Options" below).  Once you enter your password, you will be talked through several different options.  The most commonly used are:

LISTEN (3): Plays any messages in your box and then allows you to save (4), delete (6), or replay (7,3) them.  After saving or deleting a message, you also have the option to send a reply message to the sender (1), forward the message to another PhoneMail user (9), or transfer out of PhoneMail to the sender's extension (7,0).

RECORD (1): Allows you to record a message to send to another PhoneMail user or users by regular delivery (#) or special delivery (3).  Special delivery options include return receipt (1), private, meaning it cannot be forwarded to a third party (2), and urgent (3).

ANSWERING OPTIONS (8): Lets you record a personal greeting (1).

MAILBOX OPTIONS (9): Allows you to set up distribution lists (1) and change your password (3).

Each phone includes a message waiting indicator.  When this MSG WTG light is on, one or more of the people utilizing that phone has a message in PhoneMail.  To check if the message is for you, press the button for your line. If you hear a broken dial tone, you have a message.  If you hear a regular steady dial tone, you do not have a message.

When listening to messages, you may dial:

2 to skip from one message header to the next.  (A header includes the date and time that the message was sent and sometimes the sender's name.)

* 2 to stop a message in progress and skip forward to the next header.

3 to override the message header in progress and go directly to the message.

7 2 to skip back from one message header in progress to the previous header.

* 7 8 to stop a message in progress and replay the previous eight seconds.

* 9 8 to stop a message in progress and skip forward eight seconds.

When recording a message, you may dial:

1 to go directly to the dial tone.

* 1 to stop, then continue recording later.

* 6 1 to stop recording and start over.

* 6 # to stop and cancel delivery of what you just recorded.

* 7 3 to stop and replay what you just recorded.

* 7 8 to stop and replay the last eight seconds of what you just recorded.

An easy-to-read PhoneMail Decision Tree and Quick Reference Guide, including this information and more, is issued to new students requesting an Authorization Code.   Additional copies are always available from the Telecom Office on the Upper Level of the Klinck Memorial Library, or simply click here.