In Pittsburgh, when it comes to answering all of your impossible questions, forget about the… In Pittsburgh, when it comes to answering all of your impossible questions, forget about the information super-highway. Here you have at your disposal a truly unique and boundless source of information. To access this fountain of knowledge you don’t need dial-up or high speed; all you need is a good old-fashioned telephone and one number: 412-624-FACT.

Affectionately called 4-Fact because you dial “4-FACT” to reach Telefact from any campus phone, Telefact is an entirely student-operated information hotline brought to you by the University of Pittsburgh.

Today, Telefact has 17 or 18 employees during the school year and five people employed over summer. Working at Telefact is one of the many work-study jobs offered at the university.

This exceptional resource was created in 1990 to help students on campus get information that pertained exclusively to the university and the city of Pittsburgh. When more people began giving out the number to friends and acquaintances, the small program grew, and the hotline was bombarded with questions that were not limited to the university or the city.

According to its mission statement, Telefact employees are committed to providing callers with fast, efficient and accurate information about the university, the city of Pittsburgh and the “universe at large.”

What a concept: the idea that a single source can give you an answer pertaining to anything in “the universe at large?” It’s no wonder Telefact receives such a huge variety of questions.

“When we get funny ones [questions] we write them down and post them on the wall for everyone to see,” Lori McClelland, a senior communication disorders major and Telefact employee, said.

McClelland listed off a few classic questions the hotline has received over the years:

“When I get a mug shot and my fingerprints taken, can I get a copy of that for my scrap book?”

“How many blades of grass are on the Cathedral lawn?” (The answer is 4,165,032,960.)

And of course, “What’s the number for Telefact?”

To get a good understanding of what Telefact does, simply call them yourself and ask them anything. The hotline is accessible to anyone that has the number, and it is useful to anyone that has a question.