Doan Hoang 12 March 2000
This policy applies to all laboratories except the Architecture laboratory; that is, to the X-terminal laboratories (LG31-36, LG41, LG42, LG45, G7, G8, and G88) and the PC laboratories (G4, G62, G64, G65, and G66). It may look excessively detailed to the naive reader; experience shows otherwise.
(1) Emergencies --------------- If a medical or other emergency occurs, emergency telephone numbers may be found posted near the telephone. The Security Service emergencies-only number is 13333 and is worth memorizing. *Don't hesitate* to use these numbers; better be safe than sorry. If there is no phone, go to the Computer Science Office, Madsen G70. If it's after 5pm, use the public phone in the lower foyer of Madsen to ring 000. In other buildings the attendants should be able to help you. In Carslaw the Attendants' Office is Room 216, on Level 2 (i.e. one level above the Student Centre) behind a wooden door with "Attendants" clearly posted. This office is virtually always occupied. (2) Security ------------ Our laboratories are full of expensive equipment and it is very important that we all pay serious attention to security. The following elaborate rules for opening and closing labs have been found to be necessary: if people start making up their own rules, the result is labs closed when they should be open, open when they should be closed, or closed but with the windows open. You must follow these rules. A security bus runs from outside Carlsaw and Wentworth to Redfern in the evenings. The last bus leaves at 10pm. So it is important that on 10pm closing evenings the laboratories be vacated in time for students to catch this bus. We cannot leave it to the students to depart in good time, because of the inevitable temptation to make that one last change or printout. Accordingly our X terminals die at 9.50pm. (3) Windows ----------- By far the biggest practical problem is windows left open after the lab is locked. *Please* make sure you close windows when you lock up. (4) Food -------- No food near terminals. (5) Opening Laboratories ------------------------ Opening a laboratory means unlocking the door. Casual tutors do not have keys to laboratories. Staff tutors may obtain keys to any labs they use, from Remo. On teaching days most laboratories are opened by workshop staff at an unspecified time prior to 9am (for maintenance puroses, many labs will not open until 10am). (Another option is to have the building attendant, Jeannie, open them at 8am, but we are not doing this owing to security concerns.) These laboratories remain open all day on these days; if any are discovered to be locked, workshop staff will open them. During mid-semester breaks and other non-teaching weeks, only LG31-36 and some PC labs are opened. On weekends beginning some time after the start of semester (which are the only days when laboratories are open but workshop staff are absent) the only laboratories open are LG31-36. There is no weekend opening of PC labs at all. LG31-36 is opened from the inside by the weekend lab supervisor, who then opens the outside door as well. In past years the University Security service opened the labs but this happens no longer. Students using LG31-36 are permitted to use the toilets in the inside corridor, but not to wander about the building. (6) Closing Laboratories ------------------------ Closing a laboratory means closing the windows (important because of security and because rain and dust can otherwise blow in and damage the equipment), turning off the lights, and locking the door. This can be done without a key if the door is open. There have been recurring cases of students locking themselves into laboratories and so frustrating the closing of those laboratories. For this reason it has become necessary to issue the 5-6pm Help Desk people and evening and weekend laboratory supervisors with keys to laboratories, so that they can unlock any locked laboratories, evict students, and close them properly. On weekends the only laboratories open are LG31-36, and these are closed by the lab supervisor as he or she leaves. On weekdays when there is a 5-5.45pm Help Desk person but no evening laboratory supervisor (i.e. early and late in semester, and on Fridays), the 5-5.45pm Help Desk person (who holds keys to the laboratories) is responsible for closing all laboratories between 5.45pm and 6pm. On weekdays when there is a 5-5.45pm Help Desk person and there is also an evening laboratory supervisor, the 5-5.45pm Help Desk person (who holds keys to the labs) closes all laboratories between 5.45pm and 6pm, except LG31-36 and all of the PC laboratories (G62, G64, G65, and G66), which remain open until the evening laboratory supervisor closes them at the end of the evening. If demand for PC laboratories is clearly low, either the Help Desk person or the evening laboratory supervisor should close some PC labs in order to concentrate the students in the remaining labs, as a security precaution. A similar concentration may be effected in LG31-36 if it seems desirable. On any remaining days, when there is no 5-5.45pm Help Desk person (i.e. Stuvac and other non-teaching weeks) only LG31-36 and some PC labs will be open, and they will be closed by workshop staff no earlier than 4pm. If a BIT (i.e. evening course) lecturer arrives, the lab may be passed on to him or her open, and it becomes the BIT lecturer's responsibility to see that the lab is closed in the proper way at the end of the evening. BIT lecturers have keys, so if they don't show up the lab can and should be closed even when they are expected, and even if people in suits demand entrance to the lab. It is also acceptable for the 5-5.45pm Help Desk person to leave a laboratory open if a tutor is present in it, after reminding the tutor to close the lab (including the windows) when he or she leaves. (7) Laboratory Hours -------------------- LG31-36 opening hours are posted on the Net under the Department's Ugrad home page. During semester the PC laboratories are open for the same weekday hours as LG31-36. All other laboratories are open during teaching days only, until closed by the 5-5.45pm Help Desk person shortly before 6pm. There is the possibility of keeping LG45 open on busy evenings, and even on busy weekends, which we will do only on demand. The lab supervisor is responsible for all labs that are open, not just for LG31-36.