Work Term Improvements and Course Changes

Hey A-Soc, I hope your term is going well, and that you’re in good shape after midterms! Things have been super busy in my world; funny how all your assignments seem to be due on the same day, eh? Things have been kind of quiet with all the on-campus committees, but I’ll just report on what there is.

The Co-op Working Group (CWG) for the faculty met last Monday (June 27^th) to further discuss various co-op initiatives to be included in the Cooperative Education and Professional Affairs (CEPA) Vision 2015 Plan. CEPA is the department responsible for Co-op and PD in the Faculty of Engineering. I received updates on various initiatives being explored, including Job Development for Junior Chem Eng, Return to First Work Term Employer, and 8-Month Work Terms.

• Job Development for Junior Chem Eng: CECS has been investigating methods of better focusing on Junior Chem Eng Job Development. So far, some likely actions include, partnering with the Chem Eng Department, creating a database of Chem Eng employers, and focusing on specific sectors. Timeline for this project: Implementation before Winter 2012
• Return to First Work Term Employer: For the return to previous employer initiative, CECS is looking for more of a culture shift (as opposed to policy). It’s unclear exactly where this will go from here, but my interpretation is that this initiative will take the form of more formal discussions during site visits meant to explore what opportunities exist for increased responsibility.
• 8-Month Work Terms: Discussions are on-going with department chairs to determine what challenges face departments with the implementation of this. CECS expressed some concern about being able to develop true 8-month work terms. It is unclear at the present time exactly how this will proceed.

The Faculty Undergraduate Studies Committee (FUGS) met on Friday, June 24^th to discuss curriculum changes to the academic calendar. Most changes can be considered housekeeping (fixing incorrect information from previous course changes), but more significant modifications were made to GENE/ME 123 (1B Electrical Engineering). The two courses have been merged, the content has been revised to remove electric/magnetic waves, and the course now covers exclusively electric circuit theory. This was due to the course being too “packed” and some material was not being covered.

Course Critiques have been stuffed and sent to professors; thanks to my Course Critique Directors for helping with this. Your profs should be bringing them to class over the next few weeks. Please make sure your class takes these surveys seriously. They are the only way teaching quality is evaluated, and they have a significant effect on how much of a salary increase they get each year. Debt Load surveys are due back in the EngSoc Office today at 4:30 pm! These surveys serve to help the Dean’s Office keep track of how much debt students have over time. The surveys are run each Winter and Spring term, and the results of this survey will be published in the next issue of The Iron Warrior.

I wanted to inform you that I have been selected to serve on the Co-op Review Committee as a student representative. This role is outside of the VP-Education role, and I will serve in this role until April 2012. The role of this committee will be to review the goals of CECS and to review co-op as a whole at our school. I was chosen because I have past experience with the inner workings of CECS and have an engineering background.

Finally, some upcoming things to note are that there will be a Cooperative Education Council (CEC) meeting on July 7^th, and the final Academic Rep Meeting of the term will be on July 13^th. I have booked out POETS for the Academic Reps after our meeting, and I will use a portion of my discretionary fund to buy them some sort of food to reward them for serving their classes so well this term.