Friday, December 21, 2018

Still a few creatures stirring on campus today

Eric Breugst sent in this photo of the the staff in the Arts Undergraduate Office showing off the gifts they had donated and wrapped for a sponsor family this Christmas.

Well, it's the most wonderful time of the year - the last working day before the University's winter break. In a few short hours, the University will close for its longest holiday of the year, with students, faculty and most staff taking a well-deserved break until 2019.

It's also payday, just in time for a flurry of last-minute Christmas shopping over the weekend. Human Resources has updated the biweekly and monthly pay dates for 2019.

With that in mind, most Print + Retail Solutions locations are open until 4:30 p.m. today. Check the hours page for details.

Several Food Services operations have already closed today, with some exceptions: Starbucks in the Science Teaching Complex is open until 2:00 p.m., Tim Hortons - DC, Tim Hortons - SCH, and Tim Hortons - SLC are open until 3:00 p.m., Mudie's and The Market at UWP are open until 7:00 p.m. tonight. The University Club’s Christmas Luncheon Buffet is still running today until 2:00 p.m. 

The Dana Porter Library will be open until 11:00 p.m. tonight and the Davis Centre Library will both close at midnight at 5:00 p.m. today (apologies for the error).

Athletics facilities will close at 4:30 p.m. today.

REV, V1, MKV, and UWP Front Desks will close at the latest by 4:00 p.m. Saturday, December 22 and will reopen Wednesday, January 2 at 12:00 p.m. The CLV Front Desk will close 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 22 and will reopen Tuesday, January 1 at 8:00 a.m.

The Residence IT Service Desk located in Village 1 will close 8:30 p.m. Friday, December 21 and will reopen Wednesday, January 2 at 12:30 p.m.

The three IST service desk locations (Dana Porter Library, Davis Centre, and Village 1) will also close today at 8:30 p.m.

Central Stores will provide normal delivery/pickup services for all departments today. Afternoon delivery and pickup times may change slightly due to an extended lunch break.

Campus Wellness locations (including Health Services and Counselling Services) will be closed for the holiday break beginning tomorrow. Counselling Services closes at 4:30 p.m. today, and Health Services shutters at 5:00 p.m.

Students with medical needs over the holidays are encouraged to first call Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000 for medical advice. Students with medical emergencies should contact Campus Police at ext. 22222 or by calling 911. Check the Campus Wellness website for additional resources.

The ECEC children’s program closes today at 12:00 p.m. and will re-open on Monday, January 7, 2019 with regular hours. 

The School of Pharmacy and the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business are both open today. The Stratford campus closes at 4:30 p.m. The School of Architecture is also open today, as is its Melville Café. Design At Riverside is open until 5:00 p.m.

Stephen Briggs, acting co-director of maintenance in Plant Operations, reports that building conditions will be held at normal night and weekend setback temperatures starting tonight, and most ventilation will be turned off. "The university is closed," Briggs stresses, "and anyone who elects to be here should not be expecting normal services and temperatures." Briggs invites everybody's help with conservation, ensuring all appliances, office equipment and unused fume hoods have been turned off. "And please make very sure all windows are closed before you leave.”

The time has also come for laboratories to be shut down in an orderly fashion for the holiday break. The Safety Office has sent out its annual memo containing the steps to be taken to ensure a safe shutdown over the holiday period.

All laboratory operations are to be suspended by 4:00 p.m. today, and may resume on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

The last day for hazardous waste pickup and drop-off at the Environmental Safety Facility was Wednesday, December 19. Any remaining hazardous material should be stored in properly sealed containers and in containment areas. Compressed gases and equipment gas supply lines should be shut off.

Electrical devices, such as hot plates, computers, fume hoods and environmental chambers (if they aren’t containing hazardous materials, that is) should be turned off and unplugged, which will prevent damage to equipment due to power surges, while at the same time reducing energy waste and pollution.

Laboratory contact information should be updated with names, phone numbers and addresses in “a location accessible to emergency response personnel” and emergency contact information should be provided to the UW Police via email – uwpolice@uwaterloo.ca “If applicable, include documentation on contents of sensitive freezers and refrigerators in the lab,” says the memo.

Anyone working in a lab during shutdown should have supervisor and departmental approval and adhere to the Working Alone Guidelines posted on the Safety Office website. The Safety Office is available to answer questions at extension 35755.

If a lab incident occurs, failures of equipment or physical plant should be reported to Plant Operations at 33793. Contact the Safety Office or the UW Spill Team through UW Policy at extension 22222 if there are concerns about hazardous waste spills.

Director of Police Services Alan Binns would like to remind the campus community that all buildings will be locked during the holiday break. UW Police Services will start locking doors at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon.

“Please ensure that anyone needing entry into your buildings during this time have keys available to them for that purpose,” writes Director Binns. “Also, as done previously, many of you leave building access keys with UW Police to be signed out. This practice will continue. Keys may be signed out only to those people that you have specifically authorized.” Persons signing out these keys will be required to deposit a WatCard or driver’s licence to ensure their return.

Alan also informs us that this is a vulnerable time for the campus and valuables should not be left unsecured. UW Police also offers the use of their safe for the storage of money and small valuable items.

He would strongly advise that department heads update their faculty and staff contact lists and have them on hand at home over the holiday, should the need arise to contact personnel in their department(s) during the closure. Alan reminds us of the Christmas 2017 shutdown when several buildings flooded requiring the attendance and assistance of off-duty faculty and staff members.

Your guide to a (mostly) closed campus

Brian Dietrich submitted this photo of staff in Plant Operations showing off their ugly Christmas sweaters at their annual ugly sweater party.

Beginning tomorrow, things will quiet down on campus as we close up shop for seven business days, with two weekends thrown in free of charge.

All Print + Retail Solutions operations will be closed over the holidays.

Most Food Services locations will be closed through Tuesday, January 1, 2019, opening on Wednesday, January 2. The University Club, after producing another amazing holiday luncheon buffet for several weeks, will be closed for the holidays starting December 22 until Monday, January 7 and will reopen on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. Check the Food Services website for details about specific location operating hours.

The University of Waterloo's Libraries will be closed from Saturday, December 22 to Wednesday, January 2, 2019. Check the Library website for a full list of locations and hours. 

Athletics facilities are also closed during the break and will reopen on January 2, 2019.

All IST Service Desks will be closed from Saturday, December 22 to January 1, 2019. Visit the IST Service Desk holiday hours notice for re-opening details for each desk location.

The School of Pharmacy and the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business will follow the main campus's holiday shutdown.

The School of Architecture will be closed from Friday, December 21 at 4:30 p.m. to Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. The School will only be accessible to Graduate Students, Staff and Faculty during this time.

With the exception of Columbia Lake Village-North and UWP Wellesley Court North, which house our graduate families and Winter Holiday Stay Program, all residences will close for the holiday break. There are short-term accommodation options available.

The Graduate Apartments at St. Paul's will be open to tenants during the holidays and on-call staff will be available during the break. The Guest Rooms are also open during the shutdown period and guests may use the convenient self-check-in process. Rooms should be booked by 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 21. 

A major exception to the week-long campus closing is the Student Life Centre. Scott Pearson, operations manager of the SLC, writes that the building will be open throughout the holiday season, as always. The Turnkey Desk (519-888-4434) “will be staffed 24 hour a day with friendly Turnkeys to provide assistance to those who stay on campus,” says Pearson.  

Most of the SLC's businesses will shut down entirely throughout the break including Lifetouch Photography, Campus Tech, Tim Hortons, Brubaker's, the Bombshelter, International News, Student Health Pharmacy, WatCard and SOS Physiotherapy.

CIBC will be open on both Saturday December 22 and 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will be closed on December 23, December 25, December 26 and January 1, 2019. The branch will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on December 24 and 31 and is open for regular hours on December 27 and 28. All regular business hours will resume on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.     

Campus Dentist will be open until Friday, December 21 and will resume regular hours on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

The Student Health Pharmacy's last day open for 2018 was Wednesday December 19 and it will resume regular hours on Wednesday January 2, 2019.

GO Transit and Greyhound will continue to service campus throughout the shutdown, although on some days the schedules will operate on holiday scheduling. Full ticketing and travel information is online or available at the Turnkey Desk. GO Tranist will operate a Sunday Schedule on Christmas and a Saturday scheduled on Boxing Day. Be advised that GO Transit is implementing a schedule change starting on Saturday, January 5.

Pearson also states “on New Year’s Eve all transportation on GO Transit is free system-wide after 7:00 p.m. No tickets are required.”

Grand River Transit will be operating on a special holiday schedule from December 24 to January 4, 2019. GRT will operate on a Sunday Schedule on December 25 and 26 and January 1, 2019. GRT is also free after 6:00 p.m. on December 31. Many main routes will have extended service on New Year’s Eve.

The Turnkey Desk @ DC closes for the term as of Saturday, December 15 and reopens on Friday January 4, 2019.

Plant Operations is reporting that on Saturday, December 22, between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. contractors and Plant Operations staff will be completing repairs/maintenance on the Engineering 5 and Engineering 7 Buildings. Both Engineering #5 and Engineering #7 will be closed to all for the day. No unauthorized persons will be permitted within either building.
 
Key fob access for these buildings will be shut down at 5:00 p.m. on December 21, until the completion of the work at approximately 6:30 p.m. on December 22. Upon completion, IST staff will ensure that all fobs are back on-line and functioning properly. Keys dropped off at the University of Waterloo Police office for sign-out by designated authorized users will not be issued for these buildings during this maintenance shutdown. 

Snow removal on the main campus over the holiday period will be limited, according to Sharon Rumpel, associate director of Grounds, Parking and Transportation within Plant Operations. "Grounds staff will respond to serious snow issues," is the official word, especially to clear priority areas such as the ring road. Added Rumpel, “During the holiday break, grounds staff will be on call to do winter maintenance of emergency routes on campus as requested by either UW Police Services or Central Plant.”

All parking lots will be open and free throughout the holidays, except for lot D under Needles Hall and the Early Childhood Education Centre (ECEC) lot at the Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology (PAS) building. Gates to the lots around campus are being opened one by one in the course of this afternoon, says Manager of Parking Services Ed Danhousen. From now until the morning of January 2, 2019, 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 park their car, for the sake of snow clearing operations. Enforcement of parking rules on fire routes and in accessible spaces will continue, the university police say.

If you notice an outage of the campus network or any major IST-maintained computing facility, you can leave a voice message with the IST Service Desk at 519-888-4357 or submit a request online.

Finally, the Daily Bulletin will return on Wednesday, January 2, 2019. Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

What to expect when you return in 2019

All good things come to an end, and the campus holiday will end after New Year's Day on Tuesday, January 1, 2019. Campus will wake up from its holiday hibernation on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

UW Police will ensure that all campus buildings will be reopened by 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

Campus Wellness offices will reopen on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 8:30 a.m.

The Waterloo Residences office will reopen Wednesday, January 2 at 8:30 a.m.

Columbia Lake Village-North residents can pick up their keys at the CLV community front desk and begin moving in after 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 1, 2018.

There is no Early Move-in for the winter 2019 term. All MKV, REV, UWP, Village 1, Minota Hagey, and Columbia Lake Village-South residents can begin moving in Wednesday, January 2 after 12:00 p.m.

Anyone with questions about move-out and move-in is invited to email housing@uwaterloo.ca.

"Winter break is the ideal time to begin exploring housing options for spring and fall 2019. Upper-year and Graduate applications now open!" says a note from Housing and Residences. "Students are also invited to the University of Waterloo Housing Fair on January 23, 2019 in the Student Life Centre Great Hall from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m."

Print + Retail Solutions locations including the Book Store and the Waterloo Store will be open for extended hours starting Wednesday, January 2, 2019. Check the Print + Retail Solutions website for more details.

Feds Used Books will be open on Monday, January 2, 2019 at 9:00 a.m.

Lectures and classes will begin on Monday, January 7, 2019, as does the co-operative work term.

A thank-you to 2018's Daily Bulletin contributors

Throughout 2018, I have had the privilege of working with many talented people across campus and beyond who have written material for the Daily Bulletin and who have helped keep the campus community informed about life at the University of Waterloo. Here is this year's honour roll:

Sandra Ace, Dan Ackerman, Dipali Batabyal, Brian Caldwell, Bruce Campbell, Victoria Chan, Alyssa Clarkson, Lucas Dunlop, Susan Fish, Sue Fraser, Anne Galang, Nan Gao, Jacqueline Gergal, Beth Gallagher, Feridun Hamdullahpur, Candace Harrington, Jean Hein, Megan Hood, Jim Howard, Nancy Hui, Hilary Hutchins, Farzaneh Irani, Jennifer Jantzi, Ana Jung, Lisa Kabesh, Sabrina Khandakar, Simone Larin, Claire Mastrangelo, Tatjana Milojevic, Kenton Needham, Wendy Philpott, Natalie Quinlan, Mona Qutub, Beverly Raimbault, Alana Rigby, Lily Roth, Rose Simone, Peter Stirling, Shawn Syjueco, Bryan Tolson, Sam Toman, Carol Truemner, Victoria Van Cappellen, and Rebekah Wiesel.

In addition, I would like to thank the Faculties, departments, academic support units, committees, and other organizations both on campus or in the community who contributed material to the Daily Bulletin this year.

The Daily Bulletin turned 25 in 2018 and to date has published more than 6,300 issues. I’d like to thank founding editor Chris Redmond for his very good work in building this newsletter into a key component of the campus community from 1993 to 2011.

The Internal and Leadership Communication team is here to make sure that the rising chorus of campus voices are heard amid the trials and travails of daily life at Waterloo, especially as the University grows ever more complex. We look forward to continuing that tradition with you into the new year.

A thank you all, and to all a good night.