COLLEGE CALLING SHIFT

Reason:

Already faced with a financialcrunch, colleges are losing 1 moreprofit center. For years, many schoolscontracted with long-distance carriersfor bulk telephone minutes,which they then resold to students ata profit. But the rise in cell phone usehas all but eliminated what was aminor but steady source of income.Some colleges are making the switch,offering incoming students free cellphones and a choice of serviceproviders, and getting a nominalcommission for each student whosigns up. Dartmouth College is takinga different route, however, offeringstudents free long-distancecalls. The school was spendingalmost twice as much as the actualcost of long-distance calls to trackand bill the charges.