Last day before the holidays

Today is the last working day of 2008 — a pretty quiet one, with many staff taking these last two days off work, and many faculty hunkered down marking exams. In a few hours the university will close for its longest holiday of the year, and apart from a few people providing round-the-clock essential services, the institution will sleep until the new year under its blanket of snow.

(Snow? This year's was "the snowiest fall since 1951", says Frank Seglenieks of the UW weather station in his quarterly summary. Total accumulation, from equinox to solstice: 96 centimetres, which is more than 37 inches. Waterloo also experienced the coldest fall in the ten years the weather station has been keeping data, he adds.)

On this early-winter day, the majority of food services outlets have closed for the season, including the residence cafeterias and Tim Hortons in the Student Life Centre. Open today are Pastry Plus in Needles Hall (until 3:00), Tim Hortons in South Campus Hall (until 2:30) and in the Davis Centre (until 2:00), and Brubakers in the Student Life Centre (until 3:00). The University Club will offer its Christmas buffet lunch for one last time.

The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries are open until 5:00 tonight. The Musagetes Architecture Library and University Map Library will close at 4:30.

Many offices and services will close early, such as the Computing Help and Information Place, which will be packing it in at 3:30 p.m. Central stores will provide a "condensed" mail pickup and delivery service, with the last run to departments starting at 1:15 p.m. (Outbound courier shipments should be at Stores by 2:30 if they're to go out before the new year.) 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 residences are closed now, except for Columbia Lake Village, where some residents live year-round. The off-campus housing office has compiled a short-term accommodation list for students who need a place to stay over the holiday break.

Today is payday for faculty, staff, graduate students and temporary employees on the monthly payroll. Employees can check their payroll information by logging on to myHRinfo. The next biweekly payroll, for CUPE members and casual employees, will be deposited in bank accounts on January 2. The human resources web site now lists information about 2009 payroll deadlines and pay dates. Human resources will be open until 4:30 today for employees who need assistance.

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

Most UW buildings will be closed December 24 through January 4, reopening on Monday, January 5. Buildings will be locked over the holidays, the UW police stress, and anybody who needs to get in will have to have made prior arrangements with the faculty or department responsible for the building.

Rick Zalagenas, director of maintenance and utilities, says building heat will be set back to night and weekend temperatures starting tonight, and most ventilation will be turned off. "The university is closed," he stresses, "and anyone who elects to be here should not be expecting normal services and temperatures." 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."

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 safety office has told managers of laboratories what 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." Emergencies can be reported to ext. 33793.

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Gifts for Christmas: A volunteer crew from the Centre for Teaching Excellence packed some 200 bags yesterday, to be delivered to the Out of the Cold homeless shelter in downtown Kitchener. Socks, gloves, toiletries and other items for the gift bags were donated in offices across the UW campus this month, says the CTE's Marta Bailey, at far left in the photo.

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At UW over these twelve days

From tomorrow through January 4, libraries will be closed. Retail stores will be closed. Recreational facilities (the Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield, both gym and arena) will be closed. Offices will be closed — and that means phones and e-mail messages won't be answered. "For the record," writes Janice Cooke, who handles electronic services for the UW alumni office, "the office will not be responding to e-mail inquiries, E-Community applications or requests for usernames or student IDs."

And this note from the distance education office: "For students who have enrolled in an online/DE winter course by first thing this morning, the DE office will have mailed course materials by the end of the day. Students can look for a 'shipped date' in Quest. Materials for enrolments entered over the Christmas break will be processed and mailed beginning January 5."

The WatCard office has been de-activating fall term accounts (for things like residence room access) and loading winter term funds (so parents can be assured that their children have meal money). 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.

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. Accordingly, a major exception to the 12-day campus closing is the Student Life Centre. Scott Pearson, assistant manager of the SLC, writes that the building will be open throughout the holiday. The turnkey desk (519-888-4434) "will be staffed 24 hours a day with friendly turnkeys to provide assistance to those who stay on campus," says Pearson. "A hot pot of coffee is always on, along with some snacks and other beverages. Greyhound, Grand River Transit, Coach Canada, Galaxy/Cineplex and Princess Cinemas tickets are available. Also study rooms, piano rooms, board games are available. The large screen TV in the Great Hall will also be on — just ask the turnkeys to change the channel if necessary. UW Food Bank hampers are also available through the turnkey desk."

Downstairs in the SLC, the Student Health Pharmacy closes at 2 p.m. tomorrow and does not reopen until January 5. SOS Physiotherapy will be open on December 24 and 29. The CIBC bank branch will be open throughout the holiday, only closing on December 25 and 26 and January 1. The CIBC bank machines will be available at all times.

The Architecture building in Cambridge will be entirely closed on December 25-26 and January 1. On other days, students will have access to their offices and studios, and the Melville Café and the Riverside Gallery will be open to the public. (By the way, last night's "Unsilent Night" in Cambridge, put on in cooperation with the architecture school, was reportedly a huge success, with an estimated 1,000 people turning out to make music and see the lights — photo at left.)

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. 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 will be dealt with in January.) Also still in operation is the JobMine co-op job system, and new winter term jobs will be added to the system day by day 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. Students who live in residence and are leaving their cars on campus over the break should register with Parking Services and will be told just where to put the car, for the sake of snowplow operations.

Just one Warrior team is in action over the holidays: the men's hockey squad, which is taking an intercontinental road trip. It'll leave December 27 for Switzerland to face three professional teams (Geneva, Ambri, and Saas Grund), with one of the games scheduled to take place on an outdoor rink in the mountains. "The level of hockey will be tremendous," coach Brian Bourque says. "We will also be doing some sightseeing."

Companies and services in the north campus Research and Technology Park will set their own holiday schedules. The TechTown Café will be closed December 25-28 and January 1, but the Columbia Lake Health Club will be open except for Christmas Day, with limited hours some days.

And then there's construction. "We have ongoing work at the Quantum-Nano Centre site until December 24 at noon," says Daniel Parent of plant operations. Contractors will be back on the job December 29-31, and then again in January. The same schedule is planned at other building sites on the Waterloo campus (Engineering V, the Optometry addition and the Accountancy addition to Hagey Hall) and at the health sciences campus in Kitchener. "Various small renovation work will be happening," Parent adds, at Engineering III, Doug Wright Engineering, Physics, the Tatham Centre, the PAS building and Matthews Hall.

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Looking ahead to the winter term

Monday, January 5, is the first working day of 2009 for the university as a whole, but the campus will see life sooner than that, with residence move-in scheduled for Sunday, January 4 (and early move-in on January 3). Residence cafeterias will open on the Sunday. The bookstore, UW Shop and TechWorx in South Campus Hall will be open on the Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, with the Campus TechShop in the Student Life Centre joining them on the Sunday. The Feds Used Books outlet will also be open January 3 and 4.

Offices, athletic facilities and libraries reopen on Monday, January 5, and all food services outlets will be open. Classes for the winter term also begin on January 5, but students are reminded that fee payments for the winter are due by December 30, with late fees calculated starting December 31. (That's for payments by bank transfer or international wire transfer; cheques are late already.)

Campus tours for new students will be offered January 5 at 10:30 and 1:30; one-hour tours begin at South Campus Hall. A "Services Fair" aimed at new students is scheduled for Wednesday, January 7, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre lower atrium. Details of both programs are online.

Unofficial marks for the fall term started appearing on Quest yesterday. 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 26.

This Daily Bulletin will return Monday, January 5. Any emergency announcements before that date will be made through a headline on the UW home page.

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