Not a creature was stirring, expect a few Algonquin staff during the holiday

By Caitlin Kenny

kenn0290@algonquincollege.com

While gift-giving and second servings filled the lives of most during the holidays, for some Algonquin staff, the holidays meant work as usual.

Work as usual, but with one notable difference: a significantly quieter environment.

The empty campus provided the perfect opportunity for the physical resources team to get important jobs done. This year’s tasks included repairing the college’s main electrical service, testing generators, painting walls and working in the Woodroffe server room.

To get these projects done, power interruptions were required on Dec. 29 and 30, which makes the winter break a unique opportunity for this work.

“When you turn all the power off, the rest of the campus isn’t useable,” said Udo Friesen from facility operations and maintenance services. “So we look for times when the campus has little to no activity.”

The power outage meant that people from Information Technology Services also had to come in and make sure that the server was powered off properly. While tests and repairs were being done on the fire and air conditioning systems in the server room, ITS staff took advantage of the outage to perform upgrades and install patches.

These chores are done annually - and typically without complaints - in order to keep the college’s Internet services running strong. “We have a maintenance window every year during the holidays,” said Karen Murphy from ITS. “It’s part of being in ITS. We sign up for it and we know what we’re doing when we sign up for it.”

Equally positive about their work during the holidays were members from the college’s security team, who split their time between patrol and paperwork. “Here at the college, a lot of people felt sorry for us, but a lot of people were very thankful,” said Krissie Beaudoin after spending her second holiday season at the college as a guard.

This thankfulness was expressed in a special way to all security guards who had to work Christmas day. “The college bought us a chicken dinner later on in the night,” said Jason Gagnon, a guard who had to do vehicle patrol Dec. 25. “Our work was definitely appreciated.”