Hello Everyone,
The month of February was relatively slow in terms of presidential responsibilities compared to most months.
Engsoc Elections (Jan 28th – Feb 7th)
February started off with the Engineering Society Elections. Congratulations to:
• Alessia Danelon (President)
• Owen Coutts (VP Education)
• Yasser Al-Khyder (VP External)
• Andrew Fisher (VP Internal)
• Alexandra Collins (VP Finance)
I have been working hard transitioning Alessia into my position: we are co-attending all the meetings under my portfolio and I am planning to slowly move the presidential responsibilities over to Alessia more and more as the term gets closer to the end.
Vision 2015 Town Hall Forum (Feb 2nd)
The town hall had mixed reviews among faculty & students.
From my perspective, I thought it went very well. Many issues were raised that the faculty was aware of, and many issues were raised that the faculty was not aware of.
Since then, initiatives are being put in place to address concerns students had and these will likely be implemented in the Vision 2015 plan.
IRC/IRS (Feb 4th & 5th)
IRC/IRS went fantastically this term.
I would like to thank the Gradcomm Chairs: Kirsten Hoedlmoser, Noel McGregor, Jessica Friesen, Nadine Ferguson, and the rest of the Graduation Committee for working extremely hard at making sure not only that IRS was the most amazing IRS in many years, but also that the day before IRS was equally successful. From what I hear, the complaints were few and minor. Both the Chairs and Committee as a whole should be extremely proud as they have done an amazing job.
Comp/Elec 2014 Class Visit (Feb 8th)
I visited one of the ECE 2014 classes to inform the students on the importance of the Engineering Society, advertise some of our events and solicit feedback on how the Engineering Society is performing.
Not much was discussed regarding how the Society was performing. The impression I received from the ECE class is that the Engineering Society is performing adequately in what it is trying to accomplish.
Most of the feedback given was more along the lines of what the class would like to see the Engineering Society accomplish.
The main issue that the class brought up was that there is a 2014 Comp class vote and 2014 Elec class vote on the Engineering Society council. However, this does not adequately reflect the actual make-up of the two classes since the two classes are each 50% Electrical students and 50% Computer students. My solution to this is to have specific voting members for each Elec/Comp mix of a class instead of Comp and Elec individually.
Joint Exec Meeting (Feb 13th)
Both the A society executive and the B society executive got together for a joint executive meeting to make mutual decisions on some major pressing issues. The topics discussed are as follows.
• Policy Manual:
We are debating how the policy manual works, how it should work, and what explicitly should be in it. What is going to happen is that the two VP Internals are going to meet regularly to answer these questions and plan what the future of the policy manual should be.
• Undergraduate Planning Committee:
We currently have two seats on this committee and it was decided that each society will fill one seat and that person will be chosen by each society president. I have selected our incoming President Alessia Danelon.
• Society Agreement:
We have decided collectively to sign this agreement.
• Possible Fee Increase:
We have also discussed the possibility of h0lding a referendum for a fee increase. This extra fee would be put in a new account to be used only for Engineering Society development and capital purchasing, which would include foyer renovations, POETS renovations and other pricey capital purchases.
Would you support this?
Engineering Faculty Council Meeting #2 (Feb 15th)
WatPD-Engineering Update from Gordon Stubley
• Wat PD Engineering is currently focusing on developing the two core courses and making sure they are well-established before developing new courses
• The majority of feedback so far from students have been very positive or constructive
• Some potential engineering-focused elective possibilities in the future include:
o A PEO Licensing Exam Prep Course
o A process/industrial safety course
o Engineering Ethics
o Creativity & Design
Updates from the Dean Adel Sedra
1. Vision 2015 progress
• Have had discussion forums with staff, grad students and undergrad students
Scott’s note: Thanks to all who came to the forum two weeks ago-our input is valued.
2. Buildings on Campus
• Progress is happening on E6
o We should hopefully be moving in this summer
• Chem Eng will be moving out of wing C of DWE and into E6
o After Chem Eng moves out major renovations are being made to wing C of DWE then Civil and Eviro Eng will be moving in to wing C
• E7 & E8 will be the main focus of the building development component for vision 2015
Transition Meeting with Alessia (Feb 19th)
I had a full 5 hour meeting with Alessia before reading week to jump start our transitioning process.
Diversity in Engineering Meeting (Feb 24th) <—– Yes during reading week.
A small number of the faculty and I have been meeting over the past 8 months to address some diversity issues some students are experiencing in engineering. These meetings have for the most part been very preliminary, we have just been discussing how the faculty of engineering should be addressing these issues and whether there should be a committee in charge of tackling these issues or perhaps I diversity officer, or maybe even a combination of both.
What the group is also working on is what the mandate of this group or individual should be, and what they should be trying to accomplish. We are also trying to develop some research and rational behind the necessity of this group, and the initial steps that should be taken to ensure the success of this group. Like I said this is very preliminary, but if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to email me.
Committee of Presidents (Feb 28th)
The main item I would like to report from the COPs meeting is the presentation we received from the new student success office initiative.
The goal of the student success office is to support students at the University of Waterloo. Their main goal is to support students academically, such as:
• Tutoring (Both the promotion and coordination of tutoring)
• Establishing recovery programs
• Academic advising, and
• English Language support
The Student Success office is also looking to support and enrich the student experience here at the University of Waterloo, which is mostly related to the co-op/professional experience here. Some of these initiatives would include:
• Providing personal and professional development, including but not limited to: leadership, wellness, diversity, service learning, and volunteer opportunities
• International support
The Office would also like to promote and facilitate student innovation. They are looking to clone the Velocity success across a broader range of subject matter beyond business and entrepreneurship.
Currently the Student Success Office is still in the preliminary stage and are looking to solidify many plans over the next six months.
And that’s all folks,
Scott Rankin
Engineering Society President
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