By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
December 10, 1997

'The power is out on all decks, captain'

Taking advantage of downtime during the winter break, most of the University of Arizona will be closed and employees can take a breather after a long semester.

John Lane, a Facilities Management engineer, said this will be the fifth year that the UA will close non-essential buildings in order to save energy.

"We reduce our energy bill by $100,000 during each break," he said.

Facilities Management employees will take advantage of the vacation to install new carpet in the UA Main Library and Old Main buildings.

Loretta Moore, a library administrative assistant, said the building will be closed until Jan. 14, the first day of the spring semester. She added some services will be available at the Science-Engineering Library including retrieval of materials from the locked Main Library and reserve materials for Winter Session.

During the break, administration facilities, along with the Memorial Student Union and residence halls will close their doors after business hours on Dec. 19 and will reopen Dec. 29.

Lane said energy-depleting heating and lighting will be turned off in the closed buildings, but power will remain to maintain research and computer services.

"(The Center for Computing and Information Technology) will remain open at that time," Lane said.

Michael Cusanovich, vice president for research and graduate studies, said the holiday shutdowns have continued to save university dollars and reduce the amount of money cut from the budget each year.

"It's worked out well, the money is spent on something else, (such as) academics," he said.