Starting tomorrow, I'll be out on an extended medical leave. If you run into issues with the elevators, please feel free to call 5-2550. Otherwise send me an email and I'll see if I can troubleshoot the issue. 

If you run out of paper towels, I have a bunch in the basement in front of my office along with D batteries for the paper towel dispensers. Please let me know if we're running low. Classes are running as scheduled and I'll be able to lock down the building and classrooms from home. 

Thanks all 

I have updated the classroom usage and requests for those same rooms on the ILSB website. The requests for spaces which have not yet been approved are in the hatched timeblocks. 

This is a great resource to look for available spaces in the building. Keep in mind however, that the registrar can make moves until the 12th of this month and student groups can request space after the 12th until roughly two weeks prior to finals. So the data may be out of date although I'll update the usage after the 12th. 

If you are looking to move a class into the ILSB, this needs to be done by your department scheduler, through the registrar. I will somewhat have the ability to place events (non credit events) through 25live after the 12th. 

I have also updated the ILSB website to allow everyone to know what is going on in the atrium over the weekends. https://ilsb.umbc.edu/events/ Other than student tours most weekends we have a number of both campus and external groups using classrooms and spaces over the weekends. 

The building will be locked on the weekends bookending Spring break and during Quadmania. I'll try to keep these updated on the website, just know that the web addresses will not be changing. 

Thank you!

We have one of our steam generators currently inoperable and the second unit is struggling to keep up with the relative humidity demands of the basement (currently 35%). 

If at all possible, can you autoclave  using the new standalone unit on the third floor, room 324-3. This will help us keep the humidities in an acceptable range. 

Thank you!

The west facing second floor restrooms, by the elevators are closed due to a water leak above the hallway. The plumbing shop is working around class schedules to identify the problem and hopes to have the issue fixed by Friday. In the mean time, the other set of restrooms by the staircase are available. 

Sorry for the inconvenience. 

In the last 10 days we have had RO water connections to the faucets fail, It appears that the recirculating pumps may be set at a pressure too high for the connections to handle, Hydro is currently working on the system to adjust the variable frequency drives to reduce line pressure. These lines affect the upper level research and teaching labs only. 

Once completed, they will be back to address the two failed valve fittings in 310 and 207C.

Thank you all for letting me know.

With summer quickly winding down we will be having some annual maintenance issues to deal with.

1) Sometime next week the purified water system will be sanitized using hyperchlorinated water. This will affect the laboratory RO systems in the research labs along with the racked fish systems in the Environmental Systems lab.  The vivarium system will not be affected. This process takes approximately 3 days , so I'm shooting to begin next Tuesday, August 15th, subject to confirmation. Please stockpile any RO water you may require during that time prior to the sanitization occuring. 

2) Furniture in the lobby had been re-organized sometime over the weekend, leaving visible scratches along the length of the floor. ABM is planning on stripping, mopping and waxing the entirety of the atrium either Monday or Tuesday night 11pm - 6AM. Anyone needing access overnight is asked to use the Physics facing doors and then the stairwell to the second floor to access elevators. 

3) I have received a large shipment of paper towels and batteries for the towel dispensers. The new rolls will fit over the discontinued brand's core. If you need me to show you how to swap them out, please let me know. 

And lastly, the new autoclave arrived without incident this morning, electrical work for the unit will be completed tomorrow, August 10th and possibly into Friday. Plumbing work should occur on Saturday, again subject to scheduling. 

The unit will then be commissioned by Steris next week assuming the installs go as planned. 

Thank you for your attention to these important announcements. 

1) The autoclave to be installed on the 3rd floor did not arrive at the staging facility in Gaithersburg yesterday. We will shoot for delivery and installation next Wednesday and Thursday. 

2) This Saturday morning from 6am - 8am, the building will have an entire domestic water shut down to inspect the water main filtration strainer which I suspect was damaged during the December flooding incidents. RO and vivarium systems will not be affected, lab sinks, bathrooms and water fountains will. Things should be returned to normal by 9am that morning. 

3) I have finally gotten the shipment of paper towels and batteries for the research labs. These towels are not an exact fit, however the Georgia pacific brand designed for these dispensers cost almost $15 a roll. The campus had no choice but to switch dispensers.

There is a work around however, the Georgia Pacific rolls have two plastic adapters that can be used to insert a much cheaper, yet equally effective roll of paper in the units. I'll be working my way through the building swapping things out and giving instruction on the retrofit. 

4) Lastly, I have jury duty tomorrow, let's hope I don't get called.

Thanks!

If you haven't finished your autoclaving to prepare for the two week upcoming outage, you have just gotten a reprieve.

The high temperature hot water system will not be turned off until Monday morning, so autoclaves will be available over the weekend.

Please use a heat resistant pan under your material, we found a bag earlier today which did not have secondary containment and luckily, we did not have a disaster. 

As of 11:45 AM today,  May 8th, Autoclaves on the 3rd and fourth floors are available for use. The second floor unit should be available within 20 minutes and work will begin on the vivarium pass through unit at roughly 1:00.

Please be mindful that the steam generators across campus will be off from late this Friday afternoon until May the 28th. Please autoclave your lab waste and any required sterilized supplies you may need to last until the end of the month as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. 

Just a quick reminder that we will have our PM visits for the autoclaves this coming Monday morning, May 8th.. Once completed, we will have only four days to do the autoclaving necessary to last until the end of May. 

Please plan ahead and start to stock up on agar, media and the like. 

Unfortunately, we will not have our freestanding electric installed in time for this year's outage, having the work pushed forward by two weeks. 

Thank you for you attention to this critical matter.