Increasing cellular phone use on campus has prompted several Houses to discourage their use in dining halls and to remind students to turn them off during class.

Lowell, Mather and Cabot Houses have already released statements by e-mail and on their Web sites asking students to turn off cell phones in dining halls and classrooms.

School officials say while the new cell phone policy is not a ban, it is a request that students be more courteous by either turning the phones to vibrate mode or talking outside.

"[The new policy] is more a suggestion, a request to make life more livable. We simply ask that students step a few feet outside," said Eugene C. McAfee, senior tutor of Lowell House.

Some tutors said that with dining halls overcrowded and loud, less noise from phones would benefit students.

"Anything we could do to minimize noise and activity is to the students' advantage," McAfee said.

In an e-mail message, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 wrote that "the concern is not just the ringing but the holding of telephone conversations in the dining halls which tend to ignore the presence of others in a way that is rather discourteous."

Currently, each House can determine its own policy and actions.