From: "Cornish, Lisa" <arcornis at uci dot edu>
Date: April 1, 2010 11:53:20 AM PDT
Subject: Cat policy decision

...
I do not want to delay, any further, informing you that I have a decision on the Cat Policy Review. Effective April 19, 2010, there will be a two year moratorium during which new clients to Palo Verde and Verano Place Housing will not be allowed to bring cats into the community or acquire them.
...
I announced this decision to the GFH staff today and will request that the current clients in the communities be informed by resident newsletter on April 16th. Efforts to inform prospective clients will be underway immediately after the community announcements.

For prospective graduate students, this is pretty much a bait-and-switch. They are supposed to accept or decline an offer from UCI by April 15, right before they will be informed that they can't have pet cats in housing.
What a great way to p*ss off incoming students even before they have set a foot on campus...

Update: It seems they changed the announcement timings quickly after the April 15 date was pointed out to them. From another email from Lisa Cornish:

I will move all communication up. Website notification today, current residents tomorrow. Waitlist residents next week.

Update 12/16/2011: I have been informed that the cat moratorium will be lifted by July 1, 2012.
Lisa Cornish, the Senior Executive Director for student housing, send out an email announcing this decision. Excerpt:

On April 19, 2010 a two year moratorium was instituted during which time new clients to Palo Verde and Verano Place Housing would not be allowed to bring cats into the community or acquire them during the moratorium. I am writing to inform the Cat Moratorium Committee and the Coordinated Governance Group that effective July 1, 2012, the moratorium will be lifted. I would like to thank the members of the Graduate and Family housing staff and the graduate student resident council representatives who worked collaboratively as a committee to address the challenges affecting the communities, and to provide recommendations for the future.

As part of a precautionary measure to help prevent the spread of the flu, the Palo Verde Housing office will be delivering "Notice of Sick Anteater" door hangers to each apartment. In the event that you, your family member(s), or apartment mate(s) experience flu like symptoms, please place the door hanger on the front door of your apartment.

If you would like additional door hangers, please stop by the Palo Verde Housing office during normal business hours.

Flu Information and Updates are available at :
http://www.ehs.uci.edu/flu

I hope somebody gets fired over this.

In my conversation with Lisa Cornish last week the status of the GFYI came
up. Lisa has listened to the residents' councils (who have not favored
this program and its subsidizing from rent monies) and has agreed to NOT
hire to fill the vacancy. This in effect "kills" the GFYI program.

This sure is good news. I really hope that this is the start of housing working with the community representatives, not against them.

Starting July 1, 2008 Lisa Cornish will hold the title of Senior Executive Director of Housing reporting to me. In this capacity undergraduate and graduate housing, information and technology and Planning, Research, and Administration will report to Lisa.
...
This reorganization provides Housing with a much needed full-time leader who will be exclusively responsible for housing, accessible on a daily basis, and one who is uniquely qualified for the job.

This was long overdue. Whenever I had to do with Lisa, I found her competent and to the point, something I could never say with "slick Bill".
I wish her luck and hope UCI Housing changes to the better now.

After resetting the charging system, the Roomba power light is red. After about 20 hours, the power light turns green, but only a light green, not the bright green that indicates a charged battery. When I take the Roomba off the power adapter, the power light goes out. And the Roomba does not start when hitting a clean button.

They determined that based on the symptoms, the Roomba would have to be replaced. Luckily, I am still within the warranty period. So, today, I got an email from iRobot customer support for a warranty replacement.
And they don't require me to send the old unit back:

Because we are not requiring you to return your current unit to us, we ask that you dispose of the robot. This Roomba has been permanently deactivated in our records.

You may strip your Roomba of its parts, such as brushes, brush cover, filter, filter frame, and particle bin, and keep them for spare parts if you wish. It is safe to simply throw away the robot itself.

It is nice to see such good customer support. I was pleasantly surprised.

Update: I have received the new Roomba last week, and it charges the batteries just fine. So it was definitely the Roomba that was broken.

This reminded me, though, of how Bill Zeller used to run UCI Housing. He also was using student money, in this case student rent money, to rebuild an exit from Palo Verde to Anteater drive. This was done to please two professors who live across the street in the University Hills development.
Maybe this exit should be called the Bill Zeller Memorial Exit, or, given that UCI rarely names anything "Memorial", the Bill Zeller Exit. After all, since Mr. Zeller is no longer Housing director, the exit is his legacy.
And while Mr. Zeller didn't try to silence people who criticized his actions himself, he had his people try to...