According to a statement released by the Division of Student Life last week, landline telephones will be removed from all on-campus dorm bedrooms by the end of summer.

It makes me a little sad when a major piece of infrastructure is retired. Telephones were a tangible part of my college experience. Like dialing the front desk. Calling for pizza and hoping to hear the phone ring from the lounge. Asking ridiculous questions of Nightline. Having the campus police dispatcher mistakenly dial me instead of the housemaster nearly every time the police needed faculty intervention.

Amusingly, MIT’s forward-thinking solution is to return the dorm to its 1980s configuration, with common phones in the hallways and lounges replacing private phones in the rooms.