Category: Announcements

Winter 2025 End of Term

Here are some important dates for the end of the Winter Term:

Friday, April 11: Last day of classes
Friday, April 18 and Monday, April 21: University closed — no services (card access only for the Labs)
Tuesday, April 22 through Friday, May 2: Irregular availability of services — please contact us in advance to arrange a time for printing, etc.
Friday, April 25: Deadline to copy your files from local computers and the Lab Server — files may be deleted at any time after that.
Wednesday, April 30: Card access granted due to enrolment in a Lab class ends (Majors continue to have access through the Spring/Summer)

February Break Service Closure

During the Winter Term Break (formerly known as Reading Week, colloquially known as Ski Week), the IAML will be Card Access Only so that staff may enjoy some time off (not skiing). If you need photographic printing for your academic needs, check with Louie in the Photography area for availability — they will be working part-time that week. If you require equipment loans, requests and pickup must occur prior to 16:00 on Friday, February 14; loans will be in effect until Monday, February 24, when the IAML reopens for services and classes.

End of Fall Term 2024 and New Year

Here are some things to be aware of as we wrap up the Fall Term and prepare for the Winter Term.

File Clean-Up

All files on Lab stations will be subject to deletion as of December 19. Files on the Lab Server are also be subject to deletion at that time (except for Art 336, which will be extended into the New Year).

Service Hours

We plan to run (mostly) regular service hours through December 19 (09:00–16:00 weekdays, excluding lunch). There will be no services after December 20 at 14:00. Services should be available again on Thursday, January 9 at 11:00, although we may be able to offer services sooner than that, depending on how well out technical work goes. The following days are the exceptions to those times:

Wed., Dec. 18: 09:00–11:45.
Fri., Dec. 20: 10:00–14:00 excluding lunch break.

As we will be doing some technical work during this period, not all stations or services may be available at all times. Please contact us in advance if you have time-sensitive work.

Card Access

During the holiday closure, Art/Music/Drama/Dance majors should still be able to access the Labs with your Unicard. (Students who had access for the Fall Term due to a class will have their access removed on or after December 20.)

5K All The Way

The Main Lab now features all 5K 27-inch displays. We’ve recently added 4 Apple Studio Displays with Nano-texture glass to give a matte-like finish that is particularly good for photographers. These are located at Stations 10, 15, 21, and 22.

Also, the Small Lab will be receiving a number of 4K displays in the next week or so that include a built-in colour calibrator. We are very pleased with the modern, high-quality experience we can now offer in our Labs.

Service Hours Exceptions in October and Early November

There will be some exceptions to our normal service hours in the coming weeks. Here are the specifics (updated 2024-10-17):

Fri., Oct. 18: In-person services begin at 10:30
Tue., Oct. 22: Service hours 09:00–12:15, 13:45–16:30
Wed., Oct. 23: Services limited to 08:45–09:45*
Thu., Oct. 24: No services. Card Access Only.*
Fri., Oct. 25: No services. Card Access Only.*
Mon., Oct. 28: Services begin at 10:45.
Fri., Nov. 1: Service hours 09:00–11:00, 13:00–16:00
Fall Break (Mon., Nov. 11 – Fri., Nov. 15): No services. Card Access Only.*

* On these days, if you have issues with Card Access, speak to the Pod Team Office in CH D100. If there are technical problems in the computer labs, contact Arts IT. Equipment loans and printing will not be available.

Important Dates in April and May

As we come to the end of the Winter Term and begin the Spring/Summer Term, you will want to pay attention to these important dates:

Week of April 22: All student files will be deleted from Lab computers and server.
April 26: Card access deleted for students granted access due to a Winter class (i.e., non-majors).
April 29 – May 14: No services. Computers available by card access only.
May 6: Spring classes begin.
May 15: Spring/Summer service schedule begins: in-person services Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays or by appointment; support via email Tuesdays and Fridays.

Lab staff will take additional vacation time in June, July, and August. These dates will be announced in late May. If you need services during those months (we’re looking at you, graduate students), let us know as soon as possible what your deadlines are so that we can create a schedule for all students to access our lab services in a timely manner.

Reading Week 2024

The University is closed on Monday, February 19 and there are no classes for the rest of that week. Your technical staff will also be taking that week off, but you can still gain access to the Labs with your Unicard. If you require services such as equipment loans or photographic printing, you should arrange those by February 15 so as to avoid disappointment.

End of Fall Term Information

Yes, Lab staff are still working between the end of classes and the holiday closure of the University. Here are the details:

File Clean-Up

All files on Lab stations will be subject to deletion as of December 15. Files on the Lab Server are also be subject to deletion at that time, but we will try to keep those available until December 20.

Service Hours

We plan to run (mostly) regular service hours through December 21 (09:00–16:00 weekdays, excluding lunch). We will be closed from December 22 through January 1 and will reopen on January 2 at 09:00. The following days are the exceptions to those times:

Fri., Dec. 8: 09:30 start
Mon., Dec. 11: 11:15 start
Tue., Dec. 12: 09:00–12:00, 14:15–16:00
Wed., Dec. 13: 10:30 start

As we will be doing some technical work during this period, not all stations or services may be available at all times. Please contact us in advance if you have time-sensitive work.

Printing Week of December 4

Here are the hours for services (including printing) for the last week of classes, December 4:

Monday: 11:00–12:00, 13:00–14:00
Tuesday: 09:00–14:00
Wednesday: 11:00–14:00

If additional times become available, we will post that on Mastodon and will try to update this page as well.

Adobe Creative Cloud Black Friday Deal

If your classes this Term have made you interested in paying Adobe to use their products, then now would be the time to subscribe. As part of their Black Friday Sale (which ends Friday, Nov. 24), you can get all Creative Cloud apps for $21/month on a one-year contract (there are penalties for cancelling early, as we describe on our help page on the topic, so just assume you’ll be paying the $262+tax). This is a savings of $5 per month.

If all you want are Photoshop and/or Lightroom, the regular Photography (20 GB) plan priced at $13/month for a year is a better bet. (They have tried to hide this option in favour of the $26/month plan with 1 TB of cloud storage, but click on the Compare Plans link and it will show up.)