Friday, December 10, 1993

UNITED WAY REPORT:  The United Way campaign on campus is over, and -- like
the United Way across Kitchener-Waterloo -- it didn't meet its goal, which
at UW was $183,000 this year.  Still, a note from Jim Van Evra and Helen
Kilbride, co-chairs of the UW campaign, puts a cheerful face on things:
"We will wind up with a grand total in the vicinity of $145,000.  That
is a fine result in any year; congratulations for a job well done!"

CALLING 911:  As recently announced, UW's new "private 911" service
lets you dial either 911 or 9-911 from a UW extension phone and reach
the regional emergency dispatch centre, while a signal also goes to the
UW police.  So people have been asking: is there ever any point in calling
the UW police directly, at ext. 4911 (from off campus 888-4911)?

Yes, says UW police chief Al MacKenzie.  I asked for his advice yesterday,
and here it is:  "If an ambulance or fire service is need a.s.a.p., dial
911 first and then UW police if time allows.  Normally for all police
emergencies you would call 4911."  Makes sense:  it's the regional centre
that has ambulances and fire trucks, but it's UW that has the nearest
police officers.

Meanwhile, Joan Wiley, manager of telephone services, reports that something
unexpected started happening as soon as the private 911 service went into
effect on Tuesday.  There's been a trickle of wrong-number calls, false
alarms going to the regional centre and to the UW police, apparently caused
by people dialing 911 or 9-911 from UW phones, discovering that they've made
a mistake, and hanging up.  Of course it takes time and energy to check on
each such call to make sure that it wasn't, after all, an emergency.  She
doesn't know why or how somebody would dial 911 by mistake, but urges that
people be careful.

VANITY PLATES:  For a possible light-hearted Gazette article in the new
year, I'd be glad to hear from students, staff and faculty who have "vanity"
licence plates on their vehicles.  What do your plates say, what does it
mean, and why do you indulge in this particular quirk?  Please e-mail me
with comments.

PAGEANT TOMORROW:  "A reasonable number" of free tickets are still available
for tomorrow night's Christmas Pageant, the theatre centre said this morning.
The show, Saturday at 7:00 in the Humanities Theatre, includes the Beirdo
Brothers, magician David McDonnell, and some chap with a red suit and a 
booming laugh.  Donations to the local Food Bank, at the theatre door, are
"not a requirement" but requested, the box office says.  Tickets can be
picked up there, in the main lobby of Humanities.

GOOD YONTIF to all those celebrating Hanukkah, of which today is the second
day.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs
credmond@watserv1    ext. 3004