Princeton has developed a Y2K contingency plan that involves closing the University from from 1 p.m. on December 31 to 1 p.m. on January 2, 2000--with certain exceptions. The closing does not apply to residential facilities such as undergraduate dormitories, the Graduate College or Butler Housing. In addition, the University will open the facilities involved in the town-gown New Year's celebration, Curtain Calls, as well as athletic facilities to be used for intercollegiate competition.
According to Jerrold Witsil, director of Public Safety, only essential personnel and staff members designated by their departments and registered with Public Safety are to be in University buildings during this 48-hour period. Departments have been asked to shut off all nonessential devices (such as desktop computers, departmental servers, fax machines and copiers) that consume power or other central utilities by 1 p.m. on December 31.
Departments that have research or other operations that must continue to function may obtain an exception to the overall shutdown policy. Department heads may request exceptions by submitting the Exception Request Form on the Y2K Plan web site.
Each University department has been asked to designate a Y2K contingency representative to serve as a point of contact in the weeks leading up to January 1 and over New Year's weekend. Departments should register that person by submitting the Registration Form on the web site.
"In departments with approved ongoing experiments or operations, the contingency representative should be in the department's campus facility at midnight on December 31 to monitor operations until he or she is satisfied that systems are operating normally," Witsil notes. The representatives from other departments do not need to be on campus but should be available.
Also, students who will be staying on campus during the shutdown period have been asked to register in order to facilitate an emergency response in the unlikely event of a massive power outage in the Princeton area. Students planning to remain on campus are asked to to submit the Student Registration Form on the web site.
An emergency Y2K Response Team, including members of Public Safety, CIT, Facilities, and Environmental Health and Safety, will also be on campus over New Year's weekend. Current information about the status of campus facilities and operations will be available on the University's main web page (http://www.princeton.edu) and via a toll-free telephone number (1-888-468-8468).
Faculty and staff are asked to power off computing devices that will not be used for essential operations before they leave work on December 29 or for any vacation that will include the period from December 30 to January 2. DeSC participants are asked to perform the following steps:
1. Press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys simultaneously.
2. Click "Shut Down."
3. Click the circle next to "Shut Down," then click OK.
3. Some DeSC participants may see a warning about pressing the power button. If you see this message, simply click OK. If you do not see this message, proceed to step 4.
4. After a while, you will see, "It is now safe to turn off your computer." At that time, please turn off your computer, display, speakers and any attached accessories using their respective power switches or buttons.