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The second of this year’s three campus closures is upon us: next Wednesday and Thursday, March 24-25. And, with these off days coupled with the March 26 César Chávez holiday, many faculty and staff will be off for three days.

Winter quarter ends tomorrow (March 20), and students are not due back until the start of spring quarter instruction on March 29.

Spring break this year coincides with Student Health Services’ move to its new building. Officials said the Cowell Student Health Center will be closed from March 20 to 28, and its replacement, called the Student Health & Wellness Center, will open for the first time at 8 a.m. March 29.

The new building is on the west side of La Rue Road between Hutchison Drive and Orchard Road, across the road from the Activities and Recreation Center and next to the Colleges at La Rue. Parking is available in Lot 35 next to the building, with access from Orchard Road.

The March 24-25 campus closure is part of the furlough plan under which most employees must take 11 to 26 days off without pay over a 12-month period. The more you earn, the more days off you must take.

To accommodate seven furlough days, the campus designated three closure periods: Dec. 28-30, March 24-25 and June 14-15.

This does not mean the campus is shutting down. As always, police will be on duty — and they are asking for your help if you plan to be on the largely deserted campus. If you see something amiss, Lt. Matt Carmichael said, please call the dispatch center: 911 from campus phones or (530) 752-1230 from cell phones.

Also, if you are coming to your office, remember to dress warmly — because the utilities crew, as usual during campus closures and three-day weekends, will have turned down the thermostats where appropriate, to save on power.

Individual employees are asked to join the conservation effort, by turning off electronic devices and/or unplugging them (to keep them from drawing standby power).

If the power goes out, and you need it, the Facilities Management dispatch center will be up and running 24 hours a day, as always, and crews will be available to respond. They will take care of other emergencies as well, such as water leaks. The number is (530) 752-1655.

Police and firefighters are exempt from furloughs, as are other employees whose services are deemed essential.

Also, some unions have not agreed to the furlough-salary reduction program; their members, therefore, if they are not among those whose work is deemed essential, are being advised of these options for the upcoming campuswide furlough days:

• Take vacation days (even in advance of accruing such time).

• Take compensatory time off or leave without pay.

• Talk with your supervisors about alternative work arrangements.

Even though some unions have not agreed to furloughs, the employees represented by those unions are still required to take part in the campus’s salary reduction effort (provided the employees are not exempt from furloughs). To accomplish that, ºÙºÙÊÓƵ has established an alternative salary savings plan:

For each represented employee subject to furlough days, but whose union has not yet agreed, the campus has assigned a temporary salary savings target, and using the guidelines in the alternative salary savings plan, supervisors and managers are determining the methodology for achieving those savings.

One option is a layoff of a duration equal to what the employee would sustain under the furlough plan. Other options are described in the alternative salary savings plan.

Most salary savings must be achieved by Aug. 31, but some unions have agreed to strategies that will not be completed until later in the year.

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