Almanac

Ask Bucky

Actual questions from real people, answered by the friendly folks at the Campus Information and Visitor Center.

Q: Where can I get information about the public science events on campus in April?
A: Visit http://www.science.wisc.edu or call the Campus Information and Visitor Center at 263-2400 for details about Science Expeditions, a collection of family friendly science events happening throughout April.

Q: How far in advance is the academic calendar established?
A: Currently, academic calendars are available through summer 2006. The academic calendar is maintained by the Secretary of the Faculty and is available at http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/ secfac/acadcal/General.htm.

Your questions for CIVC can be asked in person at its office on the first floor of the Red Gym. Call 263-2400 or e-mail askbucky@redgym.wisc.edu.

1,000,000 e-mails per day
How many “pieces” of e-mail get delivered on campus each day?

The quick answer, according to DoIT spokesman Brian Rust, is a million. About 98 percent of all faculty, staff and students have WiscMail accounts, but not everyone uses them. Some students use commercial e-mail services like Hotmail, some use accounts through their local departments like Computer Science, and a few don’t use e-mail at all, however unimaginable that seems.

The amount of e-mail traffic that DoIT oversees contributed to the length of time it took for the recent student WiscMail outage to be resolved. With so much e-mail flow, restoring all the messages accumulated before and during the outage took some time. As a result, student WiscMail returned to full speed last week, with every last e-mail intact.

Not everyone who lost e-mail usage over that time period maintained a rosy outlook, however. Rust reports reams and reams of “unprintable and unrepeatable” comments students made to DoIT’s helpdesk staff last week. Among the most inflamed were a dissertator waiting for job offers and irked students waiting for exam instructions and assignments.

Others, however, realized how dependent on e-mail they had actually become.

Rust compliments the more sublime sufferers who took the attitude of “Hey, it’s just e-mail. Nobody died.”

Check your caster IQ
Is your chair eating away at the floor beneath you? If so, you may have the wrong casters and should consider getting them replaced.

The Physical Plant is seeing floors damaged by hard wheels on tile floors. If you are seeing signs of white powdery dust from floor tiles you can have the casters replaced with softer wheels. You may have your purchasing reps purchase them or contact Larry Walls, lwalls@fpm.wisc.edu, at the UW Custodial Department, and he can order the proper casters and have them installed.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, March 17, 1993: Phillip R. Certain is announced as the new dean of the College of Letters and Science … Vice President Al Gore visited UW–Madison on March 1 to tour the Arboretum and hold a town meeting with students at the Wisconsin Union Theater (outlining the Clinton administration’s national service corps initiative). … Many students traveling during spring break were unable to return to classes due to the “storm of the century,” which ravaged the eastern half of the country. … UW–Madison ranks in the top 12 science programs of the latest “U.S. News and World Report” issue on “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”