Wednesday, December 22, 1993

IT'S PAYDAY:  Everybody who works for UW is getting paid today.  For 
those on the biweekly payroll, payday comes one day earlier than usual.  
And for faculty and monthly-paid staff members, their December pay is 
turning up in their bank accounts nine days earlier than it would usually 
be arriving, on the last Friday of the month.  

The January payday for faculty and monthly-paid staff will be Wednesday,
January 26 -- two days earlier than normal.

AT WORK IN CO-OP:  While most UW offices are closed all next week, "a
small staff" will be at work Tuesday through Thursday (December 28-30)
in the co-op education and career services department.  Olaf Naese of the
department says, "The purpose of this is to telephone all of the co-op
students who are still without jobs at this time to give them encouragement
and advice, and to be available to employers calling in with jobs for
both the January and May '94 terms.  This is something we usually try to
do each year, but it depends primarily on the number of students still
left to place."

Naese says the number of unplaced students for the winter work term is
"dynamic", meaning that every day more students are being matched with jobs.
"When the computer match took place early in November, 53% of the students
going through interviews got jobs.  Since November 15, 694 of the remaining
students have been able to find employment.  That means we now have 72%
of the students going through interviews employed for the January-April
work term. We still have 941 to go.  We expect that figure to drop 
significantly by the end of January, though, as employers re-assess their
needs and realize they could use co-op students after all."

TRIVIA ANSWERS:  There were only a few official entries in the trivia
contest posed in Thursday's Bulletin, but those who competed seem to have
enjoyed tackling the 20 questions about Christmas, and perhaps others did
too.  Narrowly edging out the competition was Walter McCutchan of computing
services, who can be credited with 18 points (and some interesting
annotations to the questions).  He'll be put in touch with the creator of
the questions, Murray Shepherd of the library, to claim his book prize.

To find the questions you'll have to consult last Thursday's Daily Bulletin
on UWinfo.  Here are the answers:  (1) Shammash.  (2) David Bowie.
(3) Fifteen shillings a week.  (4) Pink, although there seem to be some
alternative liturgical traditions on this one.  (6) Eight.  (7) Gene Autry.
(8) "Little Women."  (9) Dave the Dude, in Damon Runyon's short story "Madame
La Gimp", filmed as "Lady for a Day" and "A Pocket Full of Miracles".
(10) You won't get married -- hence the phrase "bachelor's button".
(11) Mistletoe.  (12) Gian-Carlo Menotti.  (13) "A Child's Christmas in
Wales", by Dylan Thomas.  (14) "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
(15) Fred.  (16) Balthazar, Kaspar and Melchior.  (17) Donna Reed -- who,
in her fantasy, becomes a librarian!  (18) Clara.  (19) Alastair Sim.
(20) In a Congo mission.

Notably missing from that list is question (5), as Shepherd reports with
some embarrassment that he's lost the correct answer.  Every one of the
entrants said "the Grinch", but Shepherd is positive that isn't correct.
Research is continuing.

HERE'S AN EARLY holiday wish to the staff and faculty at St. Jerome's
College, for whom this is the last official workday in 1993.  St. Jerome's
has a tradition of closing for Christmas a day earlier than UW itself.

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