In the last week of the year, employees at the Triangle's public universities will have to take vacation or other leave time for at least one day that their university will be closed.
Universities like to shutter operations between Christmas and New Year's to save money. Most of those days are paid holidays. To make up the rest, universities can require employees to use personal vacation or leave time.
The mandate creates a hardship for some but brings massive energy savings as computers and lights are turned off for long stretches and building temperatures are lowered.
UNC-Chapel Hill will have one such "closed" day, Dec. 31. That day, employees must use vacation, leave or comp time to account for the day off. N.C. State employees have two such days, and N.C. Central University workers have three.
"I don't like it," said Tommy Griffin, a heating and air conditioning repairman who chairs the Employee Forum at UNC-CH. "I don't think it's fair to employees. I understand why they're doing it, but it's still a burden on employees who have to take it."
Employees can generally use annual leave, bonus leave, comp time or a floating holiday to account for the day off.
At NCSU, the mandate has generated a lot of discussion, said Steve Carlton, a crime prevention officer who leads NCSU's staff senate.
"Some people don't want to use their own leave," he said. "Others are happy to use it to have an extended break."
The mandate won't apply to employees who perform critical functions, and research labs where experiments are in progress will remain accessible to workers.
But the shutdown will affect a lot of campus buildings. NCSU will shut 233 buildings - 86 percent of all facilities - from Dec. 24 through Jan. 4.
NCSU calls the initiative the "Temperature Setback" program. From 2005 to 2008, it has saved more than $850,000 in energy costs and 48 billion BTUs of energy, enough to power about 700 average American automobiles for a year, said Tracy Dixon, director of NCSU's sustainability office.
NCSU employees will have to use vacation leave Dec. 30 and 31; NCCU employees, Dec. 29-31.
