The U. of I.’s academic reputation is known around the world.
And now it’s a global leader in Christmas spirit, too.
The campus Dial-A-Carol program broke its previous record by a long shot this holiday season, racking up an amazing 16,000-plus calls in seven days – nearly triple the previous mark – after news of the free live caroling service went viral.
Various Web and social media sites, The Washington Post newspaper and even television’s “Today Show” picked up the story, and before long, callers from all corners of the world were overwhelming the phone system at Snyder Hall, where the service has been based for 55 years.
Student volunteers from other residence halls were brought in to help as the calls kept coming in.
“We depend on student volunteers and had to send out a signal flare for help,” said Daniel Quock, Snyder’s director. “There have been several times where every phone has been manned. You put down the phone and have to pick it right back up. Sometimes there has been a wait and we have to put people on hold.”
In addition to media interview requests and the high volume of calls, Dial-A-Carol’s Facebook page jumped from around 1,000 followers to more than 5,000 during this year’s run.
“It’s breaking all kinds of records this week,” said Kirsten Ruby, the associate director of communications and marketing for University Housing, which sponsors the annual service. “There’s been a viral nature to the whole thing.”
Ruby said she can’t explain the explosion of attention. She said she sent out her annual Dial-A-Carol news release to the usual long list of traditional and social media contacts.
“I always send our media placements far and wide, but it’s crazy where it’s been getting picked up,” she said.
Students run the call center – a lounge with five phones inside Snyder Hall – and it became evident in the first few hours that something extraordinary was happening.
By the end of the first day, more than 1,000 calls already had been logged from all 50 states and dozens of countries.
“There have been nights when we’ve had 30 students in the lobby wanting to help out,” Quock said. “The response, especially considering it’s finals week, has been astounding.”
Some of the extra help was put on a cleaning detail, keeping the call center and lounge clear of late-night coffee cups and food wrappers.
Dial-A-Carol operators, in addition to singing a caller’s favorite Christmas carol, enter call information on a shareable spreadsheet, noting details like the song requested, the call’s origin and any memorable comments made by callers.
Many of the accompanying comments are thankful, and some of the requests had the singers insert children’s names for the carol’s main character. It’s hard to imagine there’s a Christmas song that wasn’t requested.
Quock said the student operators received a few negative “troll” calls along the way, but the positive comments have far outweighed the bad ones.
“Now and then we get the Grinches,” he said. “But then we’ll get a teacher calling in requesting a carol for a kindergarten class.”
Quock, who is versed in sign language, said he was especially touched by one call that involved the caller signing the carol to an off-phone audience while the U. of I. students sang.
“It made me feel very connected,” he said. “A lot of volunteers think they’re not going to sing, but then they get in here, feel the energy of the room, have conversations with people from all over, and they jump right in and start singing.”
Ruby said there are some good singers in the volunteer group, but in the tradition of caroling, good singing is not a prerequisite.
“Some of them sing like angels,” Ruby said. “Some of them sing from the heart.”
“We have a disclaimer that callers are going to get what they paid for,” Quock said.
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