Q. What arrangements are there for providing electricity and heat to
the campus in the unlikely event that our suppliers cannot deliver? If
the college has to rely on back-up generators, how long will they work?
(Physical Plant)
A. Physical Plant has had numerous meetings with our fuel and power suppliers.
ISO New England (the power grid controller) has assured us that electrical
power will not be affected by Y2k. ISO New England is more concerned with
the number of customers that will remove themselves from the electrical
grid and use generators. This practice may cause an interruption in power
supplies because they will not be able to ramp down their generators quick
enough to avoid system "trips." ISO New England has been in communication
with potential generators of auxiliary power to ascertain their plans
to avoid this potential. ISO New England is being very proactive in their
plans to cover any and all contingencies concerning Y2k. Between November
1999 and March 2000, Smith College will be generating steam by burning
fuel oil. Our fuel oil supplier has back-up generators so they can fill
trucks to deliver fuel oil should the electrical grid fail. Our steam
plant has its own back-up generator to power critical systems. Steam production
will not be affected by a system wide power failure. Buildings not connected
to the central steam plant are dependent on natural gas suppliers and
Massachusetts Electric for power and heat. Buildings that are not connected
to the central steam system are: All rental properties, 30 Belmont Ave.,
27 Belmont Ave., 138 Elm St., 8 College Lane, the Field House, the Gables,
Morgan Hall, the Stables, the Grecourt Bookshop, Central Services, For
Hill Preschool, Garrison Hall. In the unlikely event of a t power failure,
these buildings will have their water systems drained and the building
will be closed until power is restored. The following buildings have back-up
generators: Lyman Conservatory; Central Steam Plant; Physical Plant; the
Infirmary; Comstock/Wilder; Wilson/Gardiner/Morrow; Emerson/Cushing/Jordan;
Fine Arts Center; Center for Performing Arts; Wright Hall; Portions of
Sabin Reed/Burton/McConnell; Scott/Ainsworth Gyms/30 Belmont; Morris/Lawrence/Tyler;
Neilson Library; Washburn/Hubbard; Chapin; Haven; Gillette/Northrop/Lamont/Talbot/Chase/Duckett;
Ziskind/Cutter/Davis/Parsons/Friedman/Sessions/Sessions Annex/Chapel;Lilly/Pierce/College
Hall/ Seelye; John M. Greene/Hatfield/Dewey/Clark/Drew/76 Elm; Scales/King.
Generators are not meant to be used for "business as usual." These generators
provide emergency lighting, power to life safety systems and power critical
operational equipment only. Back-up generators are tested weekly. On board
fuel at the generators will last over eight hours. The same fuel oil supplier
supplies fuel to these generators. The fuel tanks will be "topped off"
before the holidays.
Q. If there is no power, will employees receive pay checks on schedule?
Are there contingency plans if there are Y2k glitches? (Controller)
A. Employee paychecks for the payroll scheduled for December 31 will be
issued to employees prior to that date to allow time for checks to be
deposited or cashed before January 1. The next regularly scheduled pay
date is January 7. Should power not be available for that payroll, manually
prepared checks will be issued. The payroll and check-printing software
utilized by the college are both Y2k compliant.
Q. If there is no power or heat or the supply is limited to a few facilities,
is there a plan for deployment of staff? Who should come to work? How
will they know who should report? How will the college alert faculty and
staff if Y2k problems close the campus? (HR)
A. HR will follow the general procedures we use for other emergency-usually
weather-related-closings. Fortunately, the college is scheduled to reopen
Monday, January 3, 2000. This allows January 1-2 to review facilities
and equipment and assess the college's readiness to open as scheduled.
The decision about whether to open as planned or delay opening will be
made by Ruth Constantine, vice president of finance and operations, Lianne
Sullivan-Crowley, director of human resources and Bill Brandt, director
of operations. Essential staff (those who need to report to work under
any circumstances) will be determined within departments. Non-essential
staff may obtain information about the status of the January 3 opening
by calling a telephone number designated for that purpose. The number
will be publicized prior to the closing of college for the December holiday.
Local radio station WHMP may also carry the information, assuming there
is electrical power.
Q. Is there a plan for communicating with students and families if there
is a Y2K emergency that shuts down the campus during the first week of
January? Do we have a way to tell students not to return?
A. The Y2K Coordinating Committee, in conjunction with the Office of the
Dean of the College, plans to have a 1-800 hotline in place to provide
students with information about college matters for the first week of
January. Details on this number will be made available prior to students'
departure from campus in December.
Q. Could interterm be affected by Y2K problems? How? What are the contingency
plans?
A. The Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty, in conjunction with
the Office of the Dean of the College, has determined that neither credit-bearing
nor non-credit interterm courses will begin before Tuesday, January 4.
We expect that the campus will be beyond any Y2k disruptions by that time.
However, if for some reason the start of credit-bearing courses is delayed,
faculty members teaching them will be encouraged to use a January Saturday
as part of their instruction period. Updates on these issues will be provided
to department chairs and program directors, as well as to the faculty
at large, during late fall faculty meetings.
Q. Assuming that there is power, are the copiers, fax, computers and printers
in my office going to work? (Purchasing and ITS)
A. Macintosh computers are not effected by the Y2K bug, but some Windows-compatible
computers are. ITS technicians have tested every model of Dell computer
on campus and checked vendor Y2K compliance statements. Approximately
54 percent of all Dell systems on campus are hardware compliant. A small
number of machines (4 percent) are too old to be upgraded and will be
replaced with compliant hardware before January 1, 2000. Software patches
can repair the Y2K problems with the remaining 42 percent of the campus
desktop computers. The patch will be installed automatically the first
time the user connects to any campus Novell server on or after January
1, 2000. Instructions for manually implementing the corrective action
will be available from ITS for desktop computers not connected to the
campus network (e.g., faculty computers that are located off campus).
Purchasing has reviewed the status of all campus copiers and fax machines
with the various manufacturers. All, without exception, are Y2k ready
now. All faxes will also continue to operate after December 31, 1999.
Only a few older model faxes have minor issues with Y2k. None will cause
the machine to cease operating and manufacturer-recommended workarounds
for these machines are available at our Web site.
Q. What will happen to the campus telephone system if there is no power
or if the phone company cannot operate? Is there a plan for using cellular
or digital phones? How do we know what departments have such phones and
what the numbers are? (ITS)
A. Software upgrades fixing the known Y2K problems were made to the college's
Rolm/Siemens 9750 telecommunications switch and the PhoneMail system in
1998. We anticipate no problems with the operation of the telephone system
due to "Y2K bugs" in campus software or hardware. If there is a power
outage on campus, we have a battery back-up that will sustain the on-campus
telephone system for several hours. If the power isn't restored within
a few hours, the telephone system will have to be shut down. However,
if the local region loses power, the local and long-distance telephone
services and cellular services will be interrupted (Ma Bell and cellular
transmitters need power too). Although ITS maintains several emergency
cellular phones, in a regional Y2K power emergency the cellular network
will be unavailable and the cellular phones useless. If the cellular network
is functional, cellular phones will be distributed to the President, Provost,
Dean of the College, and Director of Public Safety. These phones are for
emergency use and the telephone numbers will be distributed only on a
need to know basis.
Q. Are we sure there will be food in student houses for those returning
on January 3 for interterm? (RADS)
A. Residence and Dining Services does not anticipate any problems with
Y2k. Says Kathy Zieja, director "we will need for feed the RC's, HR's
and international students on Sunday night, January 2, and we will open
only two more units for January 3. Since it will be interterm, we will
not have all of our units open. Additionally, it is standard operating
procedure to have staff scheduled through the break period to check on
our units, especially the refrigeration. We will make plans to have a
menu that would not be affected by any major utility problem and to have
bottled water, canned food and basic staples on hand so that food can
be prepared with or without power for the short term.
Q. Are Smith students who will be studying abroad over the December/January
period being given any special instructions? (International Studies)
A. Students abroad over January are being asked to review our Y2K Web
page (https://www.smith.edu/studyabroad/Y2K.html,
linked to our advice for prospective study abroad students and to a page
"for Smithies Abroad"), and in particular to keep written records of transactions
prior to the new year and to exercise caution in making travel plans.
They are being referred to the State Department Y2K Web sites, and given
a host of things to think about (e.g. buses may be safer than trains,
travel delays should be factored into planning travel connections, travelers
checks may be more reliable than credit cards.) The topics covered on
our Web page (based on a page developed by the University of Georgia)
are: State Department Update, Transportation, Money, Insurance, Personal
Computers, Hotels, Medical Information, Utilities, and Back Home.
Q. How will we communicate with our athletic teams if there is a Y2k disruption?
(Director of Athletics)
A. Before December break, coaches will gather from student athletes phone
numbers and travel plans for returning to campus. Winter sports athletes
will be asked to call the Smith Y2 number for Y2k opening information
before reporting back to campus in early January. It will be each student's
responsibility to notify us if she is having difficulty returning to campus
as planned.
Q. How will computer services (e-mail, cybersmith, etc.) operate should
there be a Y2k emergency? (ITS)
A. ITS has been working for several years to upgrade all major systems,
software, and networks to be Y2K compliant. We anticipate no problems
with the operation of e-mail, CyberSmith, Banner, or the campus network
due to "Y2K bugs" in campus software or hardware. However, these services
cannot operate without power. ITS maintains non-interruptible power sources
for all central computer systems. Small dips in power levels (brown-outs)
will not effect these systems. Should there be a power outage on campus,
the non-interruptible power sources allow ITS technicians adequate time
to shut down all systems properly without damage to data files. If the
campus is faced with a lengthy power outage, all computer systems, the
network, and the Internet will be unavailable. |
