Friday, December 10, 1993 UNITED WAY REPORT: The United Way campaign on campus is over, and -- like the United Way across Kitchener-Waterloo -- it didn't meet its goal, which at UW was $183,000 this year. Still, a note from Jim Van Evra and Helen Kilbride, co-chairs of the UW campaign, puts a cheerful face on things: "We will wind up with a grand total in the vicinity of $145,000. That is a fine result in any year; congratulations for a job well done!" CALLING 911: As recently announced, UW's new "private 911" service lets you dial either 911 or 9-911 from a UW extension phone and reach the regional emergency dispatch centre, while a signal also goes to the UW police. So people have been asking: is there ever any point in calling the UW police directly, at ext. 4911 (from off campus 888-4911)? Yes, says UW police chief Al MacKenzie. I asked for his advice yesterday, and here it is: "If an ambulance or fire service is need a.s.a.p., dial 911 first and then UW police if time allows. Normally for all police emergencies you would call 4911." Makes sense: it's the regional centre that has ambulances and fire trucks, but it's UW that has the nearest police officers. Meanwhile, Joan Wiley, manager of telephone services, reports that something unexpected started happening as soon as the private 911 service went into effect on Tuesday. There's been a trickle of wrong-number calls, false alarms going to the regional centre and to the UW police, apparently caused by people dialing 911 or 9-911 from UW phones, discovering that they've made a mistake, and hanging up. Of course it takes time and energy to check on each such call to make sure that it wasn't, after all, an emergency. She doesn't know why or how somebody would dial 911 by mistake, but urges that people be careful. VANITY PLATES: For a possible light-hearted Gazette article in the new year, I'd be glad to hear from students, staff and faculty who have "vanity" licence plates on their vehicles. What do your plates say, what does it mean, and why do you indulge in this particular quirk? Please e-mail me with comments. PAGEANT TOMORROW: "A reasonable number" of free tickets are still available for tomorrow night's Christmas Pageant, the theatre centre said this morning. The show, Saturday at 7:00 in the Humanities Theatre, includes the Beirdo Brothers, magician David McDonnell, and some chap with a red suit and a booming laugh. Donations to the local Food Bank, at the theatre door, are "not a requirement" but requested, the box office says. Tickets can be picked up there, in the main lobby of Humanities. GOOD YONTIF to all those celebrating Hanukkah, of which today is the second day. Chris Redmond Information and Public Affairs credmond@watserv1 ext. 3004