Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Christmas and Winter Break (for faculty and staff)

Hello Faculty and Staff:

With only a few days remaining before Christmas and New Year's break, we are providing a checklist of tasks you might do to prepare you, your accounts, and your offices before you leave!

Communication with students and customers

Tips for your away messages. Include when you will be back or whether and how often you are checking your messages. Be careful with the wording of your message since it will be playing before, during, and after Christmas and New Years.

Power savings for individual offices

  • Unplug or turn off any power strips. 
  • Unplug any AC adapters. AC adapters still draw some energy even if they are not in use. These are sometimes called "electricity vampires"

Power savings for the office suite

 If you are the last one out of the office...
  • Shut down your office copier and printer. Unplug them too!
  • Empty out, clean out, and unplug your office fridge. Depending on your office, this is not for the feint of heart :-). Open a ticket or call Physical Plant if you need assistance with this; especially if you have a fridge that requires defrosting.
  • If you have a thermostat in your office, turn it off or set it to medium. Building HVAC systems will be placed into "unoccupied" mode during the break unless an office has made arrangements with Physical Plant to stay open.