Many students who arrive at Waterloo were quite active in their high school whether it was playing on a sports team, competing with student teams, or being involved with clubs or student government. This article will focus on how you can represent your class to the engineering body and get involved with new people.
There are three types of Class Reps, each with their own job to help inform you of what is happening around the university.
Engineering Society Representatives: also known as the EngSoc Reps – these people (typically 2-3 per class) attend bi-weekly meetings with other EngSoc Reps and the Engineering Society Executives to discuss and vote on motions and changes to the Constitution and Policy Manual. They will also be the ones to inform the rest of their classmates about the events, such as Semi-formal (a semi-formal dance), EngPlay (engineering play), or TalEng (talent show).
Academic Representative: The job of the Academic Reps is to work with their department and the Faculty on educational issues. These reps (anywhere between 2 – 6 depending on class size) are the go to people whenever there is an issue in the classroom. They will meet with their professors and department (or first year office for 1A and 1B) anywhere between two to four times during the term to discuss class dynamics. They will also attend meetings with the Engineering Society Vice President-Education to discuss tasks that he/she is working on at the time, such as curriculum changes, Waterloo Professional Development for Engineering (WatPD), or Co-op.
Waterloo Engineering Endowment Foundation Representative: The Waterloo Engineering Endowment Foundation (WEEF) representation, is typically a single person who represents the class when it comes to distributing the money to departments and student teams. WEEF gives out anywhere between $65,000-$85,000 per term, so the WEEF representatives from all classes come together to decide how that money should be split up.
While the above three: EngSoc Rep, Academic Rep, and WEEF Rep, will be found in every class, any number of other reps are also allowed. Other types of class reps include Social Reps who try to organize events to bring the class closer together. Some classes also have P**5 Reps who try to advertise the class competitions EngSoc holds, in which prize money for the class is given at the end of each term for the class that collects the most points.
If you want to meet more people in your class and in other classes, becoming a class rep is a great way to do so. People will be coming to your classes in the first couple of weeks to help run the first set of elections.
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