Hey everyone and welcome to my last exec update for the term. It’s been a wild ride so I wanted to focus on that last few things I’m finishing up before co-op and what my plans are on the education front for this co-op term. So let’s get this party… I mean article started!
The past two weeks I’ve been working with the faculty on creating two separate surveys that will be sent out shortly or over the next two terms. The first of these is regarding health and safety training on co-op. The faculty wants to better understand how well trained Waterloo Engineers are on their co-op terms so they can remain safe. This isn’t in response to any particular incident, but more of a “see if this is a problem” type of thing. The results of this survey will eventually be published on the mailing list and within the Iron Warrior.
The second survey I’ve been working on is with the Chemical Engineering department regarding co-op. Chemical Engineering has consistently had issues finding co-op jobs and there are dozens of theories why, but the best way to figure this out is to get student feedback. I’ve been working specifically with Jason Grove on this and the survey will be sent out to Chemical Engineering students in the Winter and Spring. The results will be published in the second half of the Spring term and will hopefully open a number of different new avenues for increasing co-op rates in Engineering.
Moving on to the co-op term, I want to make sure that off stream students are still consulted when it comes to any major changes to their programs. If you are an academic rep this term, don’t be surprised if I send you a number of emails during the co-op terms regarding changes to your program if they come up. I also want to make a comprehensive plan for my major initiatives throughout the Spring term so I can better invest the time that is needed into them and leverage the academic reps even more.
Another new initiative that I’m going to spend some time planning for is the creation of what we are tentatively calling the “Education Task-Force”. This is not a directorship and is intended to be a way that more students can be involved in education initiatives in the society. I will be sending out an application for this sometime during the co-op term and will have a lot more details then.
Once again, thank you all for a great term. It’s been an honour to have served you all so far as VP Education and I hope the next 8 months go even better than the first 8. As per usual, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or just want to talk, drop me an email at vpeducation.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca
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