Hello student body! We are Melissa Buckley and Madeleine Amszej and we are the YES committee for the Engineering 7 Referendum. On-stream (B society) Engineering students are encouraged to vote between March 11th and 14th on whether or not they would like to have the option to contribute to a student space in the new building. We hope that you exercise your voting privilege and strongly consider supporting the improvement of student experience and comfort by voting YES to the referendum.
We, the YES committee, feel as though a student contribution to the proposed E7 building would have many benefits for current and future Waterloo Engineering students. The student spaces that would be incorporated in E7 would be an excellent place for students to get work done, or socialize and relax, in an area of campus that has previously been lacking such a space. This would be sort of like a new and improved POETS and would come equipped with another coffee and doughnut shop. This would be particularly great for group work, student design team meetings, and working on fourth year design projects. If students express an interest in E7 and vote YES to the referendum, it sets an excellent precedent for engineering students to continue to be involved with future decision making regarding new buildings and otherwise. Engineering Students deciding to contribute to their newest building will show the students dedication their learning environment and support of the universities growth. It is the hope of the YES committee that the university will continue to offer students an opportunity to make suggestions and help determine some of the future focus of engineering related decisions as well as new developments.
Since the fee is optional, voting YES still gives all engineering students the opportunity to decide if they are able to make a donation to the building when the time comes. If you happen to be strongly opposed to the proposed $25 donation fee, voting yes to the referendum is simply allowing your peers to make the same or different decision for themselves. The optional fee will only begin once Engineering 7 has been completed and so the students contributing to the funding of the space will actually be able to use it (this is expected to begin in September 2018). In our opinion, voting yes allows all students to make the right decision for themselves when the time comes to do so.
Also in Engineering 7 there will be a new Engineering Ideas Clinic and a capstone garage where students can do hands-on work. The concentration of new Engineering Buildings is shifting across Ring Road and students can expect to be spending a lot of their class time in this area of campus for the years to come. Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Systems Design and Biomedical Engineering students will all share lecture halls at E7 and it is likely that lecture and tutorial schedules will be designed to minimize the need for students to visit the other side of campus. Other engineering programs centered around E5 or E6 would also benefit from a more accessible student space nearby as well as another C&D shop for snacks. It seems like a great idea to offer students another space where they can get work done and socialize near the main location of their lectures, tutorials etc.
If the students chose to contribute to E7 we will also be given the naming rights to the space, which would be really cool. The name would be a timeless testament to what we as students can accomplish and to what we find important. This kind of student involvement and dedication is something that should continue to be encouraged at the University of Waterloo.
More information on the E7 Referendum and why we hope you will vote YES can be found on the Facebook page facebook.com/vote.yes.for.e7. The page also includes some floor plans and a bit of the layout of E7 so if you are at all curious, you should check it out.
Thank you for reading our 2 cents on the E7 Referendum, if you have any questions please feel free to message us by Facebook, email or talk to us in person. Our e-mails addresses are m2buckle@uwaterloo.ca (Melissa) and mmamszej@uwaterloo.ca (Madeleine). We would be happy to hear your thoughts and concerns about this project.
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