Subject: [Staff] New accommodation following the loss of 80 South Bridge

From: Michael Fourman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 04:16:14 +0000

Dear Colleagues,

Many thanks to those who were able to come to the extraordinary general 
meeting yesterday afternoon. For those who could not, I summarise the 
proceedings with three simple messages:

First, THANK YOU, to everyone for a magnificent performance over the 
past few days. I have been completely overwhelmed by the levels of 
professionalism, good nature, and cooperation demonstrated, repeatedly, 
by all, in the face of entirely abnormal demands.

Second, an update on computing. Our systems are being restored with 
great speed. Our cluster of servers in South Bridge, now completely 
destroyed, provided a number of services across the division, and these 
are being rebuilt using other hardware. Backup tapes were recovered on 
Monday afternoon and home directories and other unique data are being 
restored to new locations. This process of rebuilding home directories 
will take some days. See 
http://www.informatics.ed.ac.uk/emergency/computing.html#restores for 
more detail, and for interim measures for those still without home 
directories.

Third, I commiserate with colleagues who have lost so much in the fire: 
a building which, despite its many faults, has been their professional 
home for many years and carries many happy memories, personal 
possessions, personal libraries, and, in Olga's case, a unique 
collection lovingly tended over many years. This last, the AI Library, 
is, collectively, our greatest loss.

Professor Bulfield expressed the College's wholehearted support for the 
School, and, following the General Meeting, went, with me and Prof 
Moore, to a meeting with the Principal.

I am happy to report that our meeting was a success. Four floors in 
Appleton Tower will be allocated to the School of Informatics, three of 
which will be made available immediately. This will replace most, but 
not all, of the accommodation lost in the South Bridge Fire, and we will 
review our needs for further laboratory space early in the New Year.

This is a great relief. However, it is not a magical solution to our 
ills. It means that, we will have space in which to re-establish our 
teaching and research. Continued hard work, good nature, and patience 
will be required, across the School, if we are to be ready for the new 
term on 6th January -- which we will!

Now, detailed interim plans are being made for the School Office, the 
Informatics Teaching Organisation, CISA offices, MSc and undergraduate 
laboratories, meeting rooms, common room, and accommodation for staff 
and students displaced from 80 South Bridge. Initially, we will occupy 
this accommodation "as is", with the addition of DICE networking, and 
appropriate furniture and hardware. Over the coming months there will be 
a phased programme of works to configure the space to our needs for the 
next few years. We (which, as usual, mostly means "you") still have much 
work to do.

Further details will follow. For updates see 
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/emergency/

Michael Fourman

-- 
Professor Michael P. Fourman, Informatics, The University of Edinburgh
Office: 2 Buccleuch Place 4R3, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, Scotland, UK.
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/Michael_Fourman.html
Tel: (+44) 131 650 4416  Mobile : (+44) 771 002 6848

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