A Pin Drop from the Desk of the President

I hope all your midterms went smoothly! It’s been really quiet the past two weeks because of midterms, so there is not a lot to report upon. Last Friday, the executive team met with Dean Sedra to discuss our current plans and ask him any questions we received from students. This was a fairly productive meeting as always. Dean Sedra is always interested in the student body and how we feel about the faculty.

On Saturday, June 17^th, Alessia and I attended an awards luncheon for Spencer McEwan and Michael McCauley, winners of the Sandford Flemming Foundation’s John Fisher and Roy Duxbury awards. These awards are for graduating students who have shown outstanding leadership on and off campus. Through Spencer’s and Mike’s work with the Engineering Society, their performance on co-op placements, and their efforts with the Engineering Student Societies Council of Ontario and the Professional Engineers of Ontario, the awards committee felt that these two best displayed the characteristics outlined in the award. For all 2012’s, do you know someone who might fit the bill? Nominations are not due until Winter 2012, but check out SFF’s website for more details. Also, on that Saturday, both the current A-Soc and the B-Soc executives met for an alignment meeting. We went over each goal our teams had and reviewed several motions which are now out for you to review prior to Joint Council on June 25^th. If you have any questions, ask an executive!

Meeting #3 was, again, a smooth affair and happened to be one of our shorter meetings. Just a quick shout out to Mike Seliske for being a great Speaker and running a good meeting. Meeting #4 is on June 22^nd, in which we’ll cover donation proposals and clean up the confusion about the past meeting minutes from the spring term. I unfortunately won’t be able to stay for the entire meeting due to a midterm, but I will be able to give my report at the start.

Upcoming items include the Faculty Undergraduate Studies Committee (FUGS) meeting on June 24^th, MOT on June 24^th, TalEng on June 28^th, and Canada Day on July 1^st. At FUGS, several housekeeping changes will be made to the undergraduate calendar, mainly updating old pre-requisites and removing obsolete ones. MOT (Middle-Of-Term) Party is set to take place in POETS from 8 pm to 10 pm. It’s an all-ages event, so grab a group of your friends and join the fun! We’re working on getting everything (food, music, movies, presentations) out on the patio to make the best use of our space and avoid lineups outside. Are you in Waterloo for Canada Day? Why not join Adriana Cameron, Eric Evenchick, Kristine Campbell and a bunch of other volunteers (including me!) to help run the Engineering portion of the festivities at Columbia Lake? Over 60 000 residents of the Waterloo Region attend this event, and kids love the Engineering Mini Olympics over a lot of the other faculty and vendor booths there. Plus, there is a free fireworks show to end the night!

Have a great second half of the term, and good luck to all candidates running for Vice President positions and WEEF Director. Read up on their platforms and make an informed vote.