When most people have a question about, well, anything, they turn to their phone or laptop and type it in. But as the Oxford American explains, some still call the James E. Foy Information Desk at Auburn University. There, students still answer landlines pretty much the same way they have since 1953. Even the number is the same: 334-844-4244. The service initially began for Auburn students, then was made available to the public. More than 70 years later, it endures even in the age of Google. Writer Emily McCrary spent a night on the desk and writes about the experience:
- "Training for the phones is minimal. More or less, the rules are these: Be as polite as possible, end the call if the question is offensive, don't answer anything that sounds like a homework question, and if someone makes a threat, hang up and dial *57 (that helps the police trace the call), then tell your supervisor."
And the calls. Oh, the calls. Some are minor trivia queries—the name of an actress on White Lotus, for example. But McCrary also has this example:
- "If you died on the operating table and they declared you legally dead and wrote out a death certificate and everything, but then you came back to life, what are the legal ramifications? Do you technically no longer exist? Do you have to be declared undead by a judge?"
The students never ask why a caller needs the info or can't get it any other way. A big focus of the piece is on the anonymous callers themselves and the connections they make with the students. Sometimes, it's an older person, obviously lonely, who calls night after night (like the "Care Home Lady" did). Sometimes it's a younger person, similarly lonely. Another student spent hours on the phone with a woman planning a trip from Arizona to Canada. And on and on. (Read the full story, in which one of the desk's supervisors explains how one caller's career advice continues to resonate with her as she prepares to graduate.)
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