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Special early retirement program information

Friday, December 22, 1995

Last working day of the year

The Christmas and New Year's holidays have already started for people at St. Jerome's College. Elsewhere across UW, today's a working day (give or take some parties, and with an almost complete absence of students, since exams ended yesterday).

Ahead for most of us lie ten days away from work. The first business day of 1996 is Tuesday, January 2, and classes begin Wednesday, January 3.

What's special on this Friday

Custodial staff who normally have night shifts will be working from 12 noon to 8 p.m. today, to get an early start on the long holiday.
Most food services outlets are closed. Open today: Pastry Plus in Needles Hall (until 1 p.m.), Brubaker's in the Student Life Centre, Tim Horton's in the Davis Centre.
The libraries are open to 6 p.m. today (4:30 for the Map and Design Library and Optometry Resource Centre), then completely closed until January 2.

UW services over the holiday

The UW police will be on duty 24 hours a day as always; the emergency number is 888-4911 (on campus, that's ext. 4911).

The central plant will be staffed, and emergency maintenance requests can be called in to ext. 3793. Snow removal will be minimal, and limited to priority areas such as the ring road.

The Student Life Centre (phone ext. 3867) will be open 24 hours a day as usual.

All parking lots, except lot D under Needles Hall, will be open and free throughout the holiday. Gates to service roads will be kept closed.

Computers never entirely shut down, but the computing services Customer Support Centre will be closed. If you notice an outage of the campus computer network or any major DCS-maintained computing facility, you can report it to the help desk at 888-4839. Major problems will be addressed as soon as possible, DCS says.

The Columbia Icefield will be open for recreational skating December 27, 28 and 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and December 30 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Otherwise, all recreational facilities are closed.

While the university switchboard is closed, you can call UW at 888-4567 and connect to any extension by keying in 1 plus the extension number.

Special activities to note

The basketball Athenas host "the Waterloo Christmas Shoot-out" December 28 through 30 in the Physical Activities Complex. Visiting teams are Ottawa, Western, Concordia, Queen's, Laurentian, Acadia and Laurier, and play starts at noon each day. The Athenas' first games are at 7 p.m. Thursday and 7 p.m. Friday, and the championship game is at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets for the full tournament are $15 (students and kids free); there's a $7 ticket for any two-game session.
"You can spend that special evening at the best bar in town, Fed Hall," an announcement says. New Year's Eve tickets are $9 for dancing ($12 if you wait to buy at the door), or $30 including the all-you-can-eat buffet. Tickets: 888-4090.
UW's Engineering Society hosts the 28th annual Congress of Canadian Engineering Students, which gets going December 31 with an opening banquet and New Year's Eve party at the Valhalla Inn and continues with workshops, business sessions and tours through January 6.
Contractors will be doing "a number of small jobs" on campus, says Dave Churchill of the plant operations department, including asbestos removal in the Physical Activities Complex and renovations to the first floor of the Dana Porter Library.

Religious services scheduled

Roman Catholic: University Catholic Community eucharist this Sunday at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.; Christmas Eve family Mass, 7 p.m.; caroling and midnight Mass, 11:30 p.m.; Christmas Day Mass, 10 a.m.; December 31 Mass, 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.; New Year's Day 10 a.m.; all at Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's College.

Anglican: Renison College worship Christmas Eve 11 p.m.

United Church: Westminster United Church holds its services at St. Paul's United College this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., December 31 at 10:30 a.m. Information: 746-6080.

Presbyterian: Grace Presbyterian Fellowship (Presbyterian Church of North America) meets at Conrad Grebel College Sunday at 10:30 and 7 p.m. Information: 725-5522.

Some parting advice

From the plant operations department:

Heat and ventilation will be kept at night settings from tonight until January 1. Anyone coming to campus during that time can expect to find cool buildings. It will save additional energy expense if coffee-makers, computers, office equipment and unused fumehoods are turned off during the break. And please make very sure all windows are closed before you leave.

And from the UW police:

Do not leave any personal valuables or smaller attractive items, such as laptop computers, radios and cameras, in the office or workplace. These items should be secured in a cabinet or removed to home for safekeeping over the holidays. The local police services will be out in full force with the RIDE program over the holidays, so if you drink, do not drive.

And to all a good night

Chris Lacarte, student coordinator of the Walksafe program, left these verses behind at the end of the year's last shift, at 2:00 this morning:

Twas the last night of Walksafe, and all around school
Only one person was stirring, but the night was quite cool.
As I sit at my desk with a pen in my hand
I think of tomorrow and the things I have planned.
I'm going home for the holidays, it sure will be fun.
I'll eat lots of food and drink beer by the tonne.
But as I sit here and stare at the clock
I look to the window, and boy, what a shock,
For out in the darkness what do I see
But two Walksafe faces staring back in at me!
The night is over, our work here is done,
Just sign all the sheets and then I can run.
So before I go, I want you to hear,
Merry Christmas to all, and a happy new year!

And may I say much the same: compliments of the season to all readers, friends of a dozen faiths and a thousand persuasions. If there's an emergency or major news over the break, look for a Flash announcement to UWinfo. If all remains calm, we'll be back in touch on the second day of a new and hopeful year.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

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