University outlines Y2K contingency plans
Princeton has developed a Y2K Contingency Plan that
involves closing the University from from 1:00 pm on
December 31 to 1:00 pm on January 2, 2000--with certain
exceptions, including the facilities involved in the
town-gown New Year's celebration, Curtain Calls.
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 1:00 pm 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 at www.princeton.edu/~p2000/communic.htm
or by writing to the Y2K Contingency Team, c/o Public
Safety, Stanhope Hall, by November 30.
Contingency representatives
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 at
www.princeton.edu/~p2000/communic.htm or by writing to the
Y2K Contingency Team, c/o Public Safety, Stanhope Hall, by
November 30.
"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.
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.
Minimizing the risks
"Over the past two years, every department on campus has
been asked to do whatever it can to minimize the risks
associated with the year 2000 computer bug," Witsil says.
"Most departments seem fairly confident that, if there is a
disruption in services, it will be minimal. At the same
time, it is possible that some critical equipment or
processes will fail due to a date-sensitive microchip we
didn't know about or that external environmental conditions
beyond the control of the University will have a more
serious impact than expected.
"Going into shutdown mode will accomplish two
objectives," he explains. "It will reduce the startup demand
for power should a failure occur, and it will offer
protection from spikes, surges, or low voltage conditions if
the power supply should become unstable. We are not
predicting that either of these things will happen, but we
do not believe we can rule them out completely.
"As we continue to get information from various external
sources," he adds, "we believe that the probability of a
major Y2K problem is pretty low. However, we need to be
prepared should external conditions have an effect on our
operations."
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