Winter Blues in Alaska

If you think your winter weather is bad, just talk to Warren Fraser, manager of Printing Services at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In a land where tossed water freezes before it hits the ground, daytime temperatures in the -40s can impact the operation of an in-plant in ways far more serious than the chilled ears you’re complaining about.

“When we have the extreme weather that we are now experiencing,” he e-mailed, on a recent balmy day of -41, “these are some of the additional challenges that we have to face.”

• Personnel may not make it to work because their vehicle is frozen up or their furnace is acting up or their water and sewer are frozen.

• Even though we have environmental control in the print shop, it cannot keep up at these temperatures. The windows are covered on the inside with ice, and some operations such as folding can be a nightmare.

• Our delivery van may not start even though it is plugged in.

• Paper deliveries can be delayed because trucks didn’t make it to Fairbanks from Anchorage or the hydraulics in the lift gate of the delivery truck have gone out.

• We have 90 convenience copiers around campus and in some locations it gets so dry and full of static, the copier just will not run, and customers complain loudly.

• We still read the meters on these machines by visiting most of them in person. At these temperatures I don’t force anyone to walk all over campus and drive to off-campus sites, so our reads to Océ will be late.

• Customers do not come to look at proofs because it’s too cold—and when they finally show up, they still want it tomorrow.

• The staff gets cranky and on edge.

• Customers are cranky and crazier and more demanding than usual.

“Mostly we take this all in stride,” Fraser concludes. “We’ve all been through it before and know that it will pass and we will see zero degrees again.”

One can dream.