Here’s a scenario for you. You’re a fresh-faced freshman who was just dropped off by your parents for your first year of college. You call you parents to tell them how great college is, but wait, you can’t get a signal.

Now you finally have a signal, but in order to get it, you have to stand on one foot with one hand on your hip and your phone above your head, and even then you still have static and can barely hear the person on the line.

Getting a viable phone signal has been a challenge for many students on campus. Simpson students live in a technology-driven world, and the majority of Simpson students have a cell phone. Not getting reception can be frustrating.

“I have trouble using it in the Picken Hall basement,” sophomore Lucas Kramer said. “Every time I get a phone call I have to sprint outside or upstairs so I can talk.”

What can be done about this problem? Honestly, not a whole lot. What it comes down to is getting a cell phone tower closer to Simpson.

“Service is really bad in most of the residence halls and apartment basements, and there really isn’t anything we can do about it,” said Charles Thomas, telephone technician for information services. “It has to do with how the buildings are made.”

Some people’s phones work fine while others do not have service at all in their rooms, apartments and school buildings.

Cell phone service really depends on several different factors, such as what kind of cell phone service and phone you have and how far away you are from the person you are talking to. The main problem with the service at Simpson and in Indianola in general, is how far away cell phone towers are.

“I lose calls and my calls break up when I’m trying to talk,” junior Nikki Rose said. “I lose service in Carver, Mary Berry and in a lot of the residence halls. I lose calls or get no service quite a bit in my room in Buxton.”

There really are only three solutions to the cell phone service problem. The first one is get a newer phone that has better reception and ask your service provider if there is any way to get better cell phone reception.

The second is to find your fiends who have no problems with their service and ask them what they have and switch over.

Or you can just hope and pray that cell phone companies realize that Indianola is a happening place and move a cell phone tower closer.

“I have to go into the hallway or outside to talk on my phone or walk around my room and hold my phone up to send text messages or make a call,” Rose said. “This is a big inconvenience, but I don’t think there is anything Simpson can do about it.”