Last day before the holidays

t's here. Today is the last working day of 2007 — UW’s 50th anniversary year — and a pretty quiet day it is, since fall term exams ended last night. In a few hours the university will close for its longest holiday of the year, and apart from a few staff providing round-the-clock essential services, the institution will be quiet until the new year.

Many offices and services will close early today, and the Computing Help and Information Place has limited hours, 8:00 to 11:45 and 1:30 to 4:00. Central stores will provide a "condensed" mail pickup and delivery service, with the last run to departments starting at 1 p.m. (All outbound courier shipments should be at Stores by 1:00.)

The bookstore, UW Shop, TechWorx and Campus TechShop will be open until 5:00 for Christmas shopping and a head start on January textbooks. The Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield are open until 4:30.

The majority of food services outlets have closed for the season, including the residence cafeterias and Tim Horton's in the Student Life Centre, which will be closed all through the holiday. Open this morning are Pastry Plus in Needles Hall (until 11:30), Tim Horton's in South Campus Hall (until 2:00) and in the Davis Centre (until 2:30), and Brubakers in the Student Life Centre and Browsers in the Dana Porter Library (both until 2:30). The University Club will offer its Christmas buffet lunch today, one last time.

The safety office has told managers of laboratories 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. 33793.

Custodial staff who usually work later in the evening will start today's shift at 4 p.m.

The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries are open until 5:00 tonight, not reopening until January. The Musagetes Architecture Library and University Map Library will close today at 4:30.

Residence facilities will close as of 10:00 tonight. The off-campus housing office has compiled a short-term accommodation list for students who need a place to stay over the holiday break, and reports that a number of students have been helped to find suitable accommodation.

Today is payday for faculty and staff members (both monthly and biweekly payrolls) and for students and others on the “casual” payroll. Employees can check their payroll information by logging on to myHRinfo. The human resources web site now lists information about 2008 payroll deadlines and pay dates. The human resources department will be open until 4:30 today for employees who need assistance.

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At UW over these eleven days

vening comes and the long break begins, as UW buildings will be closed December 22 through January 1, reopening on Wednesday, January 2. Buildings will be locked over the holidays, the police stress, and anybody who needs to get in will have to have a key.

Rick Zalagenas, director of maintenance and utilities, was on the local CTV news last night talking about UW's savings in utility bills over the holiday period. He says building heat will be set back to night and weekend temperatures starting tonight, and most ventilation will be turned off. Zalagenas invites everybody's help with conservation, predicting "substantial" savings in utility costs. He particularly urges people to turn off computers if they won't be needed before January: "Many people 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.

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. Also, prior to leaving your office, please ensure that you have secured all your windows and doors."

The WatCard office will be de-activating fall term accounts (for things like residence room access) and loading winter term funds (so doting parents can be assured that their children have meal money) today. The result will be that students can check their WatCard accounts online over the holidays. But access to residence doors won't be activated until the new year, lest somebody should be tempted to pay an unauthorized holiday visit.

A major exception to the 11-day campus closing is the Student Life Centre. There will still be people on campus — some who live here year-round, some who drop in to take care of research priorities, some international students who can't easily go home — and the SLC is always open to look after their needs. The turnkey desk (phone 519-888-4434) will be staffed 24 hours a day, with directions, coffee, tickets for Grand River Transit and Greyhound buses, and other essentials. The SLC also has Internet access, Galaxy and Princess Cinema tickets are for sale, a piano is available, rooms can be booked, and there's a TV set that can be rolled out into the great hall. 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.

The Architecture building in Cambridge will be entirely closed only December 25-26 and January 1, and on other days, students will have access to their offices and studios. The Melville Café and the Riverside Gallery will be open December 22-23 and 27-31.

Snow removal on the main campus over the holiday period will be "limited", says plant operations. "Grounds staff will respond to serious snow issues," is the official word, especially to clear priority areas such as the ring road. (Grand River Transit buses will continue to make the rounds, with holiday schedules in effect some days. And the Airporter will make its usual stops at the Student Life Centre.)

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, 519-888-4096."

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 519-888-4357 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 — any issues that arise, including the mailing of distance education materials, will be dealt with in January.) 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.

All parking lots will be open and free throughout the holidays, except for lot D under Needles Hall and the ECEC lot at the PAS building. There's no need to put money into any pay-and-display machines.

Just one Warrior team is competing over the holidays: the men’s basketball squad, taking part in the Ed DeArmon Memorial Tournament December 28-30 at Ryerson University in Toronto. Recreational facilities (the Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield, both gym and arena) will be closed all through the holiday.

Of course the companies and services in the north campus Research and Technology Park will set their own holiday schedules. The TechTown Café will close at 3:00 on December 24 and reopen on January 2, but the Columbia Lake Health Club will be open except for December 25 and January 1 (with reduced hours and a 3 p.m. closing December 24, 26, 30 and 31).

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The campus keeps getting bigger

onstruction and renovation projects will be pulsing with their own urgency over the next few days. Five building additions are under way on the main campus involving contractors who set their own work schedules: at the Optometry building, Carl Pollock Hall, Hagey Hall (for the school of accounting and finance), and the PAS (Psychology) building, plus the tunnel work adjacent to the Student Life Centre in preparation for the planned Quantum-Nano Centre. And that’s not counting the Pharmacy building in downtown Kitchener, which continues to rise and blossom.

Smaller projects under way these days include construction of the new convenience store on the main level of the SLC; renovation for the PDEng offices in Carl Pollock Hall; office of research renovations in Needles Hall; installation of a new ventilation system in Biology I; and floor replacements and repairs in Village I.

The square footage of campus buildings has increased by 19 per cent (from 5.2 million to 6.2 million square feet) during Campaign Waterloo, says a news release issued by UW a few days ago. It boasted that “close to $423 million” has been raised by the Campaign, which was launched in 2004 with a goal of $260 million.

To mark year’s end, UW president David Johnston released a video message (right) saying “thank you” to Waterloo alumni and other campaign donors. It’s available on the web. “This year,” UW’s friends were told, “marks our 50th anniversary, an exciting year of achievements and success. We have increased the number of scholarships offered, expanded campus facilities, and added new academic programs. Donors like you made all of this possible.”

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Looking ahead to the winter term

taff will be back to work on Wednesday, January 2. Offices, athletic facilities and libraries reopen that day, and a number of food services outlets will be open: Tim Horton's in South Campus Hall and the Davis Centre, Bon Appetit in the Davis Centre, Browsers in the Dana Porter Library, Brubakers in the Student Life Centre, and Pastry Plus in Needles Hall. Notably missing from that list is Tim's in the SLC, which won't be opening until January 7.

An exception to the January 2 return is Conrad Grebel University College, which won’t reopen after the holiday until Friday, January 4. The office of research, which is undergoing renovations, won’t be open until January 7; staff will work remotely, answering e-mail and voicemail as best they can, January 2 through 4.

The residences reopen on Sunday morning, January 6, and the two Village cafeterias will be open starting that day.

Classes for the winter term begin on Monday, January 7, but students are reminded that fee payments for the winter are due by January 2, with late fees calculated starting January 3. (That's for payments by bank transfer or international wire transfer; cheques are late already.) "Please use Quest as your primary source of account information, as the university no longer mails out fee statements," the Finance Student Accounts office advises.

The bookstore, UW Shop and TechWorx will be open starting January 2, with extended hours (to 7 p.m.) January 7 through 10. The Campus TechShop also reopens on January 2. ArtWorx in East Campus Hall will be open from 11 to 6 on January 7 and 8. The Feds Used Books outlet in the Student Life Centre will be open starting January 2.

A "welcome reception" for new students will be held Monday, January 7, at 4:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. It's aimed at both undergraduates and graduates, as well as transfer students, and will provide information about services from UW, the Federation of Students and the Graduate Student Association. An orientation session for international students is scheduled for Friday, January 4, 1:00 to 4:30, in Needles Hall room 1116, to be repeated Thursday, January 10, 1:00 to 4:30, Davis Centre room 1302.

Unofficial marks for the fall term will start appearing on Quest today. Instructors can submit final grades through the usual 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 undergraduate courses — when official marks are available on Quest — will be January 28.

This Daily Bulletin will return Wednesday, January 2. Any emergency announcements before that date will be made through a headline on the UW home page.

CAR

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