The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

Q: When does winter break begin?
A: The optimistically named “Winter break” officially starts Dec. 21 and ends on Jan. 21. But when you should leave and when you should return should be decided after you consult with your various professors, especially your Master’s Project/Thesis advisers.

Please note that “Lucille’s Ball,” the annual SPJ holiday party and faculty roast is on Thursday, Dec. 13 - you will want to stay AT LEAST through that.

Typically, students tend to leave the week following the party and return in the first few days after the New Year, so they can work on their Master’s Projects/Theses. Just FYI, I am encouraging my MP students to be back no later than the 4th.

You can find the academic and DOS calendar by going to http://snurl.com/columbiacalendar

Note: Radio lab and 601A schedule updated below.

EQUIPMENT ROOM: The equipment room will be open Monday, December 19-Thursday, December 22, from 10am to 6pm. It will be open on Friday, December 23, from 10am to 1pm. The School (and the equipment room) will be closed December 26-30. However, the building will still have 24/7 swipe access.

EDIT SUITES: As of Monday, December 19th, the 5th floor linear edit rooms will be closed to allow the tech staff to set up the Avid editing suites for the second semester. If you have editing work to do between now and January 17th, there will be two linear editing stations set up for you on the first floor in Fred Friendly suites area.

COMPUTER LABS: In preparation for the second semester, the tech staff will begin reformatting the lab computers as of January 2. Anything stored locally (on the D drive or the temporary storage drive) will be erased. All files stored properly to students’ network drives will remain stored. Room 601A will be closed Dec. 28- Jan. 6.

RADIO LABS: Because of construction in the Radio Annex and the Radio lab (511B), both rooms will be closed during the break. The current Annex (504K) will be closed starting today (12/19) through the entire break and reopen in the spring across the hall in 504H. 504K will become an Avid editing suite. The lab (511B) will be closed from Dec 27th-until January 13th for ceiling construction. These closure dates are subject to change and notices will be sent out if necessary. The radio computers will also be cleaned up and any orphaned files (those left outside of folders and scattered about) will be deleted.