‘Our annual children’s Christmas project was successful again,’ Olaf Naese writes from the co-op education and career services department. “The project will brighten the season for 201 children in 90 families. It was organized once again by CECS staffer Janet Metz," and supported by people from more than a dozen other departments across the university. The photo shows the gifts in the Tatham Centre waiting area wrapped, sorted into bags by family, and waiting for the Region’s social services staff to pick them up for delivery.

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Last day before the holidays

Today is the last working day of 2010 — a pretty quiet one, with many staff taking a vacation day, 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? Little or none for at least a week, forecasters say. Snow removal on the main campus over the holiday period will be "limited", according to the plant operations department. "Grounds staff will respond to serious snow issues," is the official word, especially to clear priority areas such as the ring road. (Meanwhile, the university’s weather station reports that autumn was “about half a degree warmer than average, pretty much bang on the average precipitation, and we had three-quarters of the average snowfall.”)

On this early-winter day, the majority of food services outlets have closed for the season, including the residence cafeterias. Open today are Tim Hortons at three locations — the Student Life Centre, Davis Centre and South Campus Hall — as well Pastry Plus in Needles Hall. All will close at 2:00 this afternoon and remain closed until the new year.

The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries are open until 5:00 tonight, the University Map Library until 4:30.

Many offices and services will close early, such as the Computing Help and Information Place, which will be packing it in at 3:00 p.m. Central stores will provide the usual service this morning (giving the last opportunity for outbound courier items until after the holidays). There will be just one “condensed” mail run this afternoon starting at 1:00, so all departments that receive afternoon service should have outgoing items ready for pickup by immediately after lunch.

The bookstore, Waterloo Store, Write Stuff, E-Smart and Campus Tech 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 will close by noon today, except for Columbia Lake Village North, where some residents live year-round.

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 December 31. The human resources web site now lists information about 2011 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 university buildings will be closed December 24 through January 3, reopening on Tuesday, January 4. Buildings will be locked over the holidays, the 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 — for example, turning off coffee-makers, office equipment and unused fumehoods. "And please make very sure all windows are closed before you leave."

Plant ops 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." A memo from information systems and technology elaborates on that: “Those using remote desktop to run applications they don’t have on their home computer need to leave their office computer on. However, it is not necessary to use remote desktop just to process e-mail.”

The 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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At Waterloo over these eleven days

From tomorrow through January 3, 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 won't be answered and e-mail will pile up, unless individuals choose to check their messages from home.

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. Gates to the lots around campus are being opened one by one in the course of this morning, says parking manager Sharon Rumpel, who also notes that there’s a bargain rate of $3 for the day in effect today at lot D and at the “visitor” portion of lot H near University Avenue. From now until the morning of January 4, 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. Enforcement of parking rules on fire routes and in handicapped spaces will continue, the university police say.

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. Ten students from overseas, along with two residence staff, will be taking part in a new “Holiday Experience” organized by the international student office and the residences’ Living-Learning program. They’ll be staying in Woolwich Court of the UW Place residence complex, and, says Greg Smith of housing, “will be exposed to all things Canadian… a traditional Canadian Christmas dinner, a day trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls, skating here in Waterloo, and a faculty-staff dinner.”

A major exception to the 11-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 as always. 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. "Hot coffee is always available, as well as some snacks and other beverages. The large screen TV in the Great Hall will also be on. Food Bank hampers are also available at the desk."

Downstairs in the SLC, today is the last day of business for most enterprises. Student Health Pharmacy, SOS Physiotherapy, Apple Hairstyling and Campus Dentist will be closed all through the break. The CIBC bank branch will be open December 24, 29, 30 and 31. The CIBC bank machines will be available at all times.

Grand River Transit, GO Transit and Greyhound will continue to service the campus throughout the break (holiday schedules apply on some days). The turnkey desk sells tickets for all these buses. The Airporter will make its usual stops at the Student Life Centre.

The Architecture building in Cambridge will be entirely closed on December 25. On other days, students will have access to their offices and studios, but heating will be turned down and facilities such as the library are closed. The Melville Café will be open daily except December 25; the Riverside Gallery will be open December 28-31 and January 2-3. In Kitchener, the Pharmacy building and the rest of the health sciences campus will be closed to the public all through the holiday; faculty, staff and students will have access to the building and there will be round-the-clock security on duty. The Stratford campus is closed throughout the holiday. The United Arab Emirates campus is closed as of today, reopening on Monday, January 3, with winter term classes starting the next day.

Health services will close as of 11:15 a.m. this morning and remain closed, like other departments, until January 4. "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 Primo 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. “For students still needing January-April 2011 employment,” says Olaf Naese of the co-op department, “the last JobMine posting of the year will take place on December 23. Postings will resume again on January 5.” He said the department has had a few staff at work during the holiday break in some previous years, but “based on our experience and activity level, we’ve decided there is no advantage to doing so.”

Companies and services in the north campus Research and Technology Park will set their own holiday schedules. The Columbia Lake Health Club says it will be open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days.

Much of the holiday will be no holiday for the construction crews who are erecting Waterloo’s new buildings. “There will be work going on at the Quantum-Nano Centre, Engineering 6, Environment 3 and Math 3,” says Daniel Parent of plant operations. A few interior alterations throughout campus will also be in progress where contractors want to keep going, he said.

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Looking ahead to the winter term

Tuesday, January 4, is the first working day of 2011 for the university as a whole, but the campus will see life sooner than that, with residence move-in scheduled for Monday, January 3, starting at 8:00. There are still some residence rooms available for the winter term, says Jennifer Ferguson, manager of admissions and marketing in the housing office. Residence cafeterias will open on the Monday.

The WatCard office is busy today 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.

Offices, athletic facilities and libraries reopen on Tuesday, January 4, and all food services outlets will be open. Classes for the winter term also begin on January 4, but students are reminded that fee payments for the winter are due by December 29, with late fees calculated starting December 30. (That's for payments by bank transfer or international wire transfer; cheques are late already.)

The bookstore, Waterloo Store, Write Stuff and E-Smart in South Campus Hall will be open from noon to 4:00 on Monday, January 3, and then from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday in the first week of classes before setting into regular 9-to-5 hours. Campus Tech in the Student Life Centre will also be open from 10 to 4 on the Monday. The Feds Used Books outlet in the SLC will be open from 9 to 5 on January 2 and 3.

New student orientation will be offered Wednesday, January 5, with campus tours starting from South Campus Hall at 10:30 and 1:30, followed by a reception and “services fair” from 4:30 to 7:00 on the lower level of the Student Life Centre. Earlier that same day, an international student orientation session is planned, from 12:30 to 4:00 in Physics room 150. For both new and returning students, Ontario Student Assistance Program funding will be released by the student awards and financial aid office at its temporary outpost in the Tatham Centre, starting January 4.

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 24.

This Daily Bulletin will return Tuesday, January 4. Any emergency announcements before that date will be made through a headline on the university’s home page.

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