With the arrival of IW’s 30th anniversary, we thought it would be appropriate to take a look at how POETS, CnD, and our other beloved engineering landmarks have evolved through the years.
For instance, did you know POETS was actually named after ‘POETS Day’? In the UK and Australia, ‘POETS Day’ was (take a wild guess) Friday. As the last day of the work week, it was dubbed ‘Piss off Early Tomorrow’s Saturday”. Our POETS, of course, has a slight modification to this, but the history of POETS Day has been a long-standing tradition, not just in Waterloo, but in engineering around the world.
But POETS and the CnD looks a lot different today than they did fifteen years ago. Originally, POETS was located in the Orifice, before it was moved to the 1337 room. The dazzling array of delicacies in the CnD didn’t exist way back when—not too long ago, the POETS patio took up about half of the area in the CnD. The CnD itself started out as nothing more than a shop with coffee and a box of bagels.
POETS also has a history of improvements by alumni donations—over a dozen pieces of equipment in POETS, including the blinds, the old TV, the projector and screen, the Tal Eng equipment, and more, were all obtained through generous alumni donations.
And then, of course, are the wild pranks—like when, back in 1999, the MathSoc Prez brought a Pig’s Head to POETS after the EngSoc was kind enough to let MathSoc win second in the Engineering Scunt. And who could forget the sodding of POETS back in Fall 2009?
Whether giving us friends or food, POETS and the CnD have come a long way from tiny, cramped quarters back in the 70’s, to the prime hangout for Engineering Students today. Who knows—maybe you could give POETS its next big break!
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