Hello reader! You may have noticed a serious lack of WEEF-related content lately, and we take full responsibility for that. However, it is our hope that this magnificent article will satisfy all your deepest desires relating to WEEF. Contained in this update are… W13 Funding Allocations, W13 Participation Rates, and a fond farewell!
First up, the Winter 2013 proposal season!! As usual, WEEF had $60,000 this term to allocate towards deserving undergraduate initiatives and projects. In total, 26 proposals were received, with 7 from the Departments, 16 from Student Teams, and 3 in the miscellaneous category. These requests totalled $137,364 and ranged from Ion Chromatography systems, to computer upgrades, to materials for rocket launching rails. This term total was significantly less than the $300,000-plus numbers that had been seen in previous terms, but still required a lot of consideration. After two nights of presentations from all submissions, the Funding Council sat down to discuss and debate how to allocate the funds. At the decision meeting, 30 of the 43 on-stream classes were represented. Though this number was enough to meet quorum, it shows that approximately 70% of the representatives were making decisions for 100% of the student body. Make sure your class has an active WEEF Rep!!!
Even so, it was a very successful meeting and we would like to thank the incredible representatives who have always been willing to ask the right questions and make the tough decisions. We also hope that this term can be the first of many which involve burritos. The funding allocation results can be seen in the accompanying table. Shaded boxes indicate proposals which received full funding (YAY!), and items with strike-throughs indicate proposals who did not have an accompanying presentation (*sad panda*).
In the end, due to a notably smaller amount of requests from the Departments, a funding split of 58% for departments and 42% for student teams and miscellaneous resulted. This deviates from the WEEF target of 70%-30%, but the change was agreed upon by a unanimously positive vote from the Funding Council.
For those who received funding, congratulations, and please check the WEEF website (www.weef.ca/proposals.php) in the coming weeks to see itemized funding allocations. You must follow the spending that is outlined in the allocation and ensure that you are clear about what specific proposal and items you are referring to in every claim. Also, these decisions are not yet approved by the Board of Directors, who will meet on April 1st, so these amounts will likely not be available for spending until Spring 2013. For those who did not receive funding, or their desired amount, WEEF encourages you to submit a proposal again next term. Also feel free to contact WEEF if you have questions or concerns about how our decisions were made.
Now for our second item of business, Participation Rates. Yes that’s right! The semi-public shaming on a class-by-class basis that we all look forward to each term! A breakdown of the 40+ on-stream classes and their participation in WEEF can be seen in the accompanying figure.
The Winter 2013 overall participation averaged in at 83.7%, which is fantastic. This 83.7% can be proud to be legitimate stakeholders in some truly incredible teams, labs, projects, and research that make the University of Waterloo what it is today. Just consult the allocations above to see the difference that your contributions are making. Shout outs go to the 2A Environmental and Geological classes, who were the only two to hit the beautiful 100% participation! Thank you! As for who you need to trip in the hallway, I think you can consult the graph for yourself 😉
And so, apart from the Board Meeting in April, it would seem as though the WEEF term is winding down. We would like to close our last article on behalf of WEEF with a big thank you! You folks always keep us on our toes, and we will miss it. We also would like to wish the best of luck to the incoming Directors, Ben Pratt (A-Soc) and Himesh Patel (B-Soc).
And remember kiddies, WEEF IS GOOD.
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