Definitions of mail aliases:  

These are mailing lists, please feel free to use them for communication purposes.

cse-consult@cse.buffalo.edu = includes CSE system administrators and technical support staff.  Please, report all concerns about hardware, software, broken equipment, account issues (enabling, disabling, login, quota), etc.

cse-lab-ug@cse.buffalo.edu = includes all lab consultants and the lab manager.  For announcements presumably from lab manager, lab supervisors, system administrators that relate to the consultants only. Also used as a forum among consultants for requesting cover for shifts, timesheet reminders, etc.

cse-lab-admin@cse.buffalo.edu = includes lab administrators and the lab manager.  Used for staff, consultant and instructor concerns about lab functions that are not of a technical nature such as personnel problems, insufficient lab hours, lab rules and procedures, and complaints.

cse-lab-ta@cse.buffalo.edu = includes all TAs (UTAs and grad TAs) in 101-116 for the semester.    For announcements (presumably from the instructors) that relate to TAs only.

cse-lab@cse.buffalo.edu = includes cse-lab-admin, cse-lab-ug and cse-lab-ta.  For materials like this document, that impact everyone involved with the lab.

General Lab Rules and Policies  

• Food or Drink in lab:
  Consultants, TAs, faculty and labbies are responsible for making sure there is no food or drink at any time.  Students should be informed of this by instructors/TAs in the beginning of each semester.  Those students that are found with food or drinks in the lab should be asked politely to remove it.  If a student does not cooperate, their username should be sent to cse-lab-admin@cse.buffalo.edu and proper measures will be taken (temporary deactivation of their account until the student is met and explained the expected CSE department ethics.)  

• Obscene or disrespectful materials on screen:
  Consultants, TAs, faculty and labbies are responsible for making sure there is no viewing of obscene/disrespectful materials in the lab at any time.  Students should be informed of this by instructors/TAs in the beginning of each semester.  Those students that are found guilty of above actions in lab should be asked politely to stop viewing inappropriate material.  If a student does not cooperate, their username should be sent to cse-lab-admin@cse.buffalo.edu and proper measures will be taken (temporary deactivation of their account until the student is met and explained the expected CSE department ethics.)  

• Printing Policy
  Students should not touch printers to refill paper but rather ask the consultants to help them with printing. We will strive to limit the printing to materials related to respective classes only.   

• Nametags and Consultant on Duty sign
  Nametags and "Consultant on Duty" sign should be displayed by the consultant at all times during shift.

• Off-hours and Extended-hours lab use
  Opening the lab earlier then scheduled and closing the lab past scheduled hours is not recommended and the lab manager should be notified in either case.  As far as staying extra hours after closing on days when a project is due for a group of students that is in desperate need of having the lab open - this is allowed and very appreciated. Be sure to notify the lab manager and document the extra hours on the your timesheet.   

• Academic Integrity  
  Please keep in mind that consultants exemplify the department’s academic integrity described under:
  http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/undergrad/academicintegrity.html

• Emergency Situations:
  In case of emergency (student fight, accident, etc.) Campus Police or CSE Office should be contacted.  Phone numbers are in the contacts section of this manual and on the back

Lab Information

• Labs should never be left unattended at any time.  If no one can cover you, the lab has to be closed.  

• All CSE UG labs follow the University Academic calendar with respect to closing.  

• The Schedules for each lab are posted inside glass display cases hanging outside lab doors for students and all others to see.  The info posted with the schedules includes instructions for students on what to do if lab is closed (e.i. go to Bell 101) , URLs for online lab schedules, and who to email with any concerns or suggestions for the labs. 
  If a consultant wants to advertise a tutoring flier inside the display case, contact wcdever@cse.buffalo.edu  

• URL to find links to this document and lab schedules on-line
  http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/uglab  

• Opening the lab:
  Baldy 19 opens with a swipecard and alarm   
  Baldy 21 opens with a swipecard and alarm   

• Survey the lab for equipment missing or broken and anything out of the ordinary.  Report any technical problems (login problems, equipment, printer) to cse-consult@cse.buffalo.edu  
  For all other concerns and questions email lab manager (wcdever@cse.buffalo.edu)  

• If asked to help students, please use professional and positive attitude. Keep in mind that your are responsible for only basic assistance with CS labs and Unix support.  Use common sense to judge the extent of your help and if students become over demanding, explain your duties are not to complete their work for them and that they should contact the TA or professor.  If the problems persist email the lab manager.  

• A walk through is required at the beginning of every shift.  All equipment should be looked over to ensure there are not any missing items(mice, mouse pads, etc).  If anything is found missing it should be reported immediately.

• Monitoring the lab at all times during the shift is required.  A stroll through the lab once every 15 minutes is recommended to keep the consultant at maximum observance level.  

• When your shift is over, please wait for the next consultant/TA.  If no one does show up, politely explain the situation to all students and ask them to leave.  Notify cse-lab-admin@cse.buffalo.edu and close the lab.  If possible, put a note on door stating next time lab should be open.  

• To close lab (at the end of the day): Make sure no one is in lab.
  Turn of monitors in Baldy 21 (to keep room temperature cool)
  Baldy 19, 21 –  and shut the door (make sure the latch catches). Check if door is locked.
  Sun Rays and Sun workstations should NEVER be turned off.

• If a consultant can not make his/hers scheduled shift, cse-lab-ug@cse.buffalo.edu should be emailed ASAP so any other available consultants could cover.  

• Arrive on time for your shift.  If you have to arrive late (or miss a shift completely) post to cse-lab-ug@cse.buffalo.edu or as soon as possible so that a replacement can be found. Missing a shift without informing anyone is unacceptable.  Consultants routinely late will be reevaluated.

• Borken is a program that is used to schedule consultants for open hours and view the weekly schedule – listing the recitation times and the consultants by their username.  The consultants can set their availability and check the posted schedule here. All others can only view the posted schedule for listed dates.  Dates are written in year/day/month format.  Instructions for navigation through Borken are explained below:  

• The path to run borken from the CSE systems is /projects/borken/bin/borken . To add the /projects.broken/bin/ dir to your path in order to avoid typing it every time do the following:
  At prompt:
  > set path=($path /projects/borken/bin)
  OR
  just paste these lines into your .cshrc file:
  #borken
  set path=(/projects/consultants/bin $path)

• When you start it up there will be several menus, just use the arrows to navigate through them and press enter when the desired command is highlighted.  

• To enter in your availability press ‘a’ to mark a timeslot avail, ‘p’ to mark timeslot PREF, and ‘n’ to clear the slot.  Press ‘x’ to exit and choose if you want to save changes or not.  

• To traverse the schedule, simply go to the schedule menu with the arrow keys and look to see when you are scheduled for the appropriate week.  Remember that dates are listed in year/day/month format since borken automatically put the largest number on the top (the latest schedule) and the week starts on a Sunday.   Highlight the according date and press ‘enter’.  A detailed schedule will appear with the site name is listed on the top.  Press the 's' key to switch between sites.  To toggle the filter for displaying only your username, press ‘f’.  Press ‘x’ to go back up a level in the menu and exit.

• All consultants should mark the 8 AM Sunday slot available (no actual shifts will be scheduled for this time)

• After creating availability in Borken, copy and paste into an email to the lab manager.  

• Baldy 19 and Baldy 21 labs are equipped with motion detector alarms, which are activated/deactivated with a 4-digit code.   For safety reasons the code in the alarms is re-programmed, occasionally.  This code should obviously be kept only among lab personnel. If the code is changed or forgotten, contact lab manager. Alarm procedure will be used in both Baldy 19 and Baldy 21.

• Steps to De-Activate the Alarm:

After the door is opened with the key, if the alarm was previously activated it will play a long beep (~30 seconds).  If no beep sounds then the alarm was not activated by the previous user – the lab manager and cse-lab-admin@cse.buffalo.edu should be notified about this by email. If the beep does sound, then alarm needs to be deactivated within 30 seconds of entry by dialing the 4-digit code into the keypad. If the code is correct the beep will stop and the led in the center of the keypad will turn green. If wrong code has been entered … re-enter the right code again. 

If alarm sounds accidentally, then try punching in the right code again to disarm it. Next, immediately notify Matt (at 645-3180 x129) and Public Safety (at 2222 from the phone in the lab) about the false alarm to prevent armed navy seals from charging into the building. Tell them who you are, what room you are in and your position as a consultant.  Next e-mail cse-lab-admin@cse.buffalo.edu to report that there was a false alarm in the particular room.

• Steps to Activate the Alarm: After making sure no one is left in the lab, the door has to be fully closed from the inside.  No motion can occur in the lab.  Once both of these conditions are met, the alarm screen should read ‘system ready’

• Punch in the 4-digit code. The alarm should play a beep if the code is correct. The alarm is now armed, the green LED in the middle of the keypad will now turn red and the display will read: "On: Exit NOW."  There is < 30 seconds to leave the lab and close the door completely.
  
  If alarm is armed and door is closed but the lab has to be re-entered again (you forgot something…), wait 1 minute outside, until the alarm enters the armed stage.  Then deactivate the alarm the usual way.

• To use the swipecard access system in Baldy 19 or 21, simply slide the card until the green LED lights up.  Open the door within 10 seconds. The red LED indicates that your card is not accepted.

• To gain access, email lab manager with your username and person  # and UB bank card # (The anatomy of the card can be found at
  http://www.ub-sunycard.buffalo.edu/anatomy.shtml ).  

• Periodic monitoring of lab environment (general wellness, cleanliness, student behavior, equipment)  

• Obtaining the recitation schedule from administration and scheduling open lab hours 

•   Posting schedule outside each lab in display cases and on UG Lab website  

•  Helping in hiring new consultants  

• Training new members of consultant team in the lab rules and all lab procedures  

• Planning mandatory meetings for all TAs and Consultants / and weekly meetings with supervisor  

• Advising the consultants with any aspects related to the UG Labs  

• Collecting and signing/verifying timesheets for consultants  

•   Petitioning for raises of consultants hourly rates  

• Communicating to administration  

•   Lab Manager’s official starting workday is the week before classes start  

• To password-lock you computer while you are away from it and providing support to other students, the following command can be used:
  xlock -remote -mode random

• In Baldy 21 there is a printer named ‘oak’ . To print a document, use the Unix print command  lpr –Poak filename.java  where the filename.java is the name of the file to be printed.  Make sure no one prints files with the “.class” extension because that will print pages of garbage.
  Example: lpr –Poak Lab1.java  

• To print more than one page on one sheet use this command mpage –n –Poak filename.java where n is the number of pages that you want to appear on one sheet of paper and filename is the name of file you want to print.
  Example: mpage –2 –Poak Lab1.java