Midterm Policy, Meeting with the Dean, and Vision 2015 Undergrad Plan

Hey Everyone! I hope your midterms went well and that your life is a little less stressful now. Things haven’t been too busy since last issue due to midterms and all, but I have some interesting things to report on nonetheless.

I had a SUC meeting on June 14^th where we discussed the expansion of the guidelines for “Other Tests and Examinations” which is code for midterm guidelines. Some additions of note include recommendations on how long material must be introduced before a midterm (two business days), how much notice must be given on the date of the midterm (tw0 weeks), under what circumstances a midterm date or time can be changed (only extreme ones with consent of the class), and, most notably, the ability for students to bring concerns regarding midterm issues to the Associate Dean of their Faculty. This is a huge win for students, and kudos goes to Alex Hogeveen Rutter for pursuing this. All that is left before this is implemented is for it to be approved at the next Senate meeting in September.

A few other items of note have happened since I wrote my last article. I found out May 26^th at the WatPD CC Meeting that PDEng courses will not be offered this fall. This was announced at the EngSoc Meeting on June 8^th. We had a beta tester introduction meeting for the new Alumni Mentorship Network site on June 9^th and beta testing of the site is underway.

I also had an Undergraduate Planning Committee (UPC) Meeting on June 17^th where we further discussed what exactly to put into undergraduate portion of the Vision 2015 plan. So far, the undergrad plan is split into three sections: Teaching Quality, TA Quality, and Student Experience. For teaching quality, the main focuses are clarifying the expectations for professors, improving the quality of measurement, and to provide better support for professors that want to improve. For TA quality, the main focuses are to help instructors use TAs more effectively, review and find improvements to TA training, and to create a simpler system for how TAs are evaluated. For student experience, the main focuses are still being decided but so far the faculty have been extremely receptive to influences of the student experience. One thing that is looking certain is that there will an annual student experience survey organized by the faculty, likely in conjunction with EngSoc.

We met with the Dean June 17^th to update him on what EngSoc has been up to and our future plans. I told him that WatPD Eng was well received by students and that the feedback thus far has been positive. I also brought up the issue of differential tuition and the Dean responded very positively,  promising to bring up the issue with Geoff McBoyle, the Provost of the university. He asked me to draft up a letter summarizing the student opinion on the issue. I will seek input on this over the next week or two then draft up a letter.

There are quite a few things coming up in the next few weeks that I wanted to talk about. There is a course critique stuffing party on June 23^rd starting at 4:30 pm in CPH 3607. Please come out and help run one of the most important factors that determine faculty salary increases! Joint Council is happening on June 25^th; there are lots of motions going through so please make sure your class is represented. There will be a FUGS meeting next on June 24^th, but at the time of writing I hadn’t yet received the agenda. This is the committee all curriculum changes go through, so if I find any non-trivial issues in the agenda I’ll be sure to seek input from class reps. There will be a CWG meeting on June 27^th, where we will discuss the Vision 2015 plan for engineering co-op. I haven’t received the agenda yet, but I will certainly be looking for input on this once I do.

Well that makes another exec report: I hope you found some of the topics discussed interesting and relevant to you. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns please email me at: asoc_vpedu@engmail.uwaterloo.ca. See you in the halls!