![[University of Waterloo]](/redtopbar.gif)
![[*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*]](/images/horizlights.gif){kind=small}
| December 22 |
Friday, December 23, 2005
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca Christmas | Yule | Chanukah | Kwanzaa | Boxing Day | Stephen | Hogmanay | New Year |
Emergency connectionsUW police will be on duty 24 hours a day throughout the Christmas and New Year's period. The emergency phone number is 888-4911 (on campus, that's ext. 4911).Staff will be on duty in the central plant as always, and emergency maintenance requests can be called in to ext. 3793. |
Today (Friday) is the last working day of 2005, and things are already slowing down. Many offices and services will likely close early today (the Computing Help and Information Place is open until 4 p.m.), and some are closed entirely, including the school of architecture in Cambridge.
The Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield gym are offering limited recreational services up to 4:30 today. No swimming or skating is available. There's action at only one food services outlet, Tim Horton's in the Student Life Centre, and even that will be closing at 12:30. Central stores will make the final mail run at 1 p.m., and advises that items to be sent out by courier today must be at the shipping dock in East Campus Hall by 1 p.m. (Stores also warns that it might not be wise to send perishable items, for fear of delays in getting them delivered.)
Today is payday for faculty and staff members (both monthly and biweekly payrolls). Employees can check their payroll information by logging on to myHRinfo through the human resources web site, which also now lists information about 2006 cutoffs and pay dates. The human resources department will be open until 4:30 for employees who need assistance.
The Dana Porter Library and Davis Centre library will be open until 6:00 tonight. The University Map and Design Library closes at 4:30 p.m., and the Musagetes Library in the Architecture building is closed all day. Retail stores (the bookstore, TechWorx, the UW Shop and the Campus Techshop) are open regular hours today (to 5 p.m.).
And then the long break begins. "The university will be officially closed," says Rick Zalagenas, director of maintenance and utilities. "Building heat will be set back to night and weekend temperatures, and most ventilation will be turned off." He invites everybody's help with conservation: "We could potentially avoid in the area of $70,000 in utility costs." He particularly urges people to turn off computers if they won't be needed before January. "Many people," says Zalagenas, "have the mistaken impression they have to be left on." Plant operations also calls on staff and faculty to turn off coffee-makers, office equipment and unused fumehoods. "And please make very sure all windows are closed before you leave."
There's no one temperature that will be reached in all buildings -- it depends on their size, the heating system, the difficulty of raising the temperature back to normal levels in January, and so on -- but in general, anyone coming to campus during the holiday can expect to find a cool environment, and it might be worth bringing a sweater along.
And the UW police advise: "Do not leave any personal valuables or smaller 'attractive' items, such as laptop computers, radios and cameras, in the office or workplaces. These items should be secured in a cabinet or removed to home for safekeeping over the holidays."
Religious servicesChristmas Eve: Mass at St. Jerome's University at 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and midnight. Service at 6:30 p.m. at Grace Mennonite Brethren Church, meeting at Conrad Grebel University College great hall. Anglican Eucharist at Renison College, 11 p.m.Christmas Day: Mass at St. Jerome's, 10:30 only. Grace Mennonite, 10:30 a.m. New Year's Eve: Mass at St. Jerome's, 5 p.m. New Year's Day: Mass at St. Jerome's, 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Grace Mennonite, 10:30 a.m. |
Construction work will continue here and there on campus, particularly at the site of the "Sharcnet" link between Physics and Engineering III, expected to be finished by mid-February. Renovations are under way in the Commissary building, and there are minor jobs in the Student Life Centre, Earth Sciences and Chemistry, and other buildings. "If the weather is good, we'll be working on the roof at the Bauer Warehouse," says Don Haffner of plant operations, referring to the building beside Wes Graham Way on the eastern edge of the north campus. Construction also goes on at Renison College, where a new "academic centre" is rising, and at the Accelerator Centre in the north campus R&T Park.
Health services will be closed like other UW departments. "Students with medical problems over the holidays," says supervising nurse Ruth Kropf, "should call Telehealth Ontario, 1-866-797-0000, for medical advice. There is also a physician on call for health services, who can be reached by following the telephone instructions on the health services line, 888-4096."
Says a note from information systems and technology: "If you notice an outage of the campus network or any major IST-maintained computing facility, you can leave a voice message with the help desk at 888-4357 or submit a request online. Both will be checked daily." The Quest student information system and the library's Trellis catalogue and database will be available all through the holidays -- "subject to unexpected system outages". (Quest support is not available.) Also still in operation is the JobMine co-op job system, and new jobs will be added to the system next week as employers submit them. Computing emergencies for the Math Faculty Computing Facility can be reported to ext. 5536, although MFCF says there is no guarantee anyone will be available to respond.
Lab safety adviceThe safety office has told managers of UW labs that there are precautions they should take before they lock the doors and head out for a holiday break.A web page dealing with the Christmas and New Year's shutdown warns that, among other things, labs have to be prepared for the power going off during the holidays: "Due to winter weather conditions utilities, especially electricity, may be affected. It is a general rule that all laboratory processes be designed to safely survive a service failure. During the holiday shutdown this is particularly important." Emergencies can be reported to ext. 3793. |
Athletic facilities will be closed, but a couple of Warrior teams will be involved in out-of-town action December 28-30. The men's basketball team will play in the University of Winnipeg's eight-team Wesmen Classic, and the men's hockey squad is in Montréal for University Cup play, with games against Queen's and McGill.
The Melville Café in the Architecture building will be open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. December 27-30, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. December 31, and back to normal hours as of January 2. The Design at Riverside gallery there will be open December 28 and 29 (from noon to 8), December 30 (noon to 5), and December 31 (10 to 4), with its exhibition drawing on UW's architecture school, "Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture in Canada". The Waterloo County Education Credit Union office in East Campus Hall will keep its usual business hours, 10 to 6, on December 28, 29 and 30.
The desk offers coffee, hot chocolate, candy and "healthy snacks". Games are available on loan, as well as recent issues of some 40 magazines; turnkeys sell tickets for Grand River Transit and Greyhound, not to mention discount tickets for the Galaxy and Princess Theatres. Among other features just now: the turnkeys are selling the 2006 calendar published by Engineers Without Borders (not the "2005 calendar", as I wrote on Wednesday).
The SLC also has Internet access, a piano is available, rooms can be booked, and there's a TV set that can be rolled out into the great hall if anybody wants to watch. On a darker note, UW Food Bank hampers are also available through the turnkey desk, in case of need.
On the SLC's lower level, the Student Health Pharmacy and CIBC bank branch will be open some days during the holiday period. Automatic teller machines are available at all times.
Just a few things will be in operation Monday, January 2, as students arrive back in the Village and UW Place residences, including some 1,100 returning to campus from co-op work terms. Mudie's cafeteria in Village I will reopen that day, and REVelation in Ron Eydt Village the next day. Retail services stores (the bookstore, the UW Shop, TechWorx and the Campus TechShop) will be open from noon to 4 p.m. on January 2, and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on January 3, 4 and 5. The Federation's used book store will also be open on Monday, the 2nd.
Students are reminded that fee payments for the winter are due by December 28, with late fees calculated starting December 29. (That's for payments by bank transfer; cheques are late already.) "Please use Quest as your primary source of account information, as the university no longer mails out fee statements," writes Karen Hamilton of financial services.
A "welcome reception" for brand-new first-year students will be held Tuesday, January 3, at 4:30 p.m. in the Bombshelter pub in the SLC.
"Unofficial" marks for the fall term will start appearing on Quest today. Instructors can submit final grades through the new electronic procedure all through the holidays. Registrar's office staff will process these submissions, and e-mail notifications will be sent to instructors. The "fully graded date" for fall term courses -- when official marks are available on Quest -- will be January 23 for undergraduates, January 3 for graduate students.
Instructors interested in using UW-ACE (Angel Course Environment) for the winter term can request the creation of their courses by going to the UW-ACE login screen and selecting Faculty: Create a Course. Students will cease to have access to fall 2005 courses and be given access to winter courses on Tuesday, January 3.
![[Evergreen by CPH]](/images/2003/1223tree2.gif)
This Daily Bulletin will return Tuesday, January 3. Any emergency
announcements before that date will be made through a headline on the
UW home page.
So some of us
go now to church,
though some must study or must work:
We pause from labours, when we can,
and some to feast, and some to skis,
and some to bed -- and most of us
to loving friends and families --
a dozen faiths, a thousand ways
to live in harmony with truth
through cold and dark December days.
and hear the season's whispered call
to burn the candles of our lives
for Peace on earth, good will to all.
CAR