Hello again wonderful IW reader,
I hope you all enjoyed my article last issue, and if you missed it, be sure to check it out on the Iron Warrior website. In my previous article, I focused on what things didn’t get accomplished during my term as President, but this article I want to talk about what projects are under way that I feel should be focused on in the coming terms. These are projects that I hope to be able to continue working on, and that the Engineering Society continues to push forward.
The first, and literally the biggest project, is that of Engineering 7. The Engineering Society is working with the Dean’s office to confirm a large amount of student space in the upcoming building. As well, I sit as the student representative on two committees relating to Engineering 7. In the coming year, we will need to come to an agreement with the University regarding this space, and potentially go to referendum to have students support the building financially.
The other projects that are still under way with the administration are numerous, as this was the area I tried to push the most on during my term. With Associate Dean Loucks, we are pushing for a complete syllabus bank, an exam bank stocked directly by the Professors, and additional room and resources for Engineering Counselling. Working with the departments, there are still a few left that we need to gain access to their mailing list, and we will need to develop an all-around communication strategy; we need to find a way to better engage the members. Also with the departments, we should continue to push for a standardized midterm process faculty wide, and for academic reps to have at least termly meetings with their departments.
On the more EngSoc-y front, the Governance Review Committee is at full throttle, and is working towards providing governance reform suggestions at the coming Joint Council in June. Two main things to be discussed are General Meetings and a Board of Directors. Also, there has been much discussion about the executive and commissioner structure of the Society, and I definitely think there should be a review in the coming year to see how it can be made leaner.
The student deals program has proven to be a very well utilized and popular service, so it should be grown. The LCD screens have finally gotten new locations approved and they are on the way. We need to again, develop a good strategy regarding how to best use these, and utilize the specific locations to best target our advertising.
RidgidWare is probably the most substantial initiative that will be coming forward in the near future. Having tentatively gotten over $4000 from ECIF and WEEF, we are moving forward quickly with the goal of a soft launch over the spring term and a full launch for Fall 2014! It will be a great new service for students looking to work on electronics projects, either as part of class or for their own interest.
One of the other large things that will be coming in Fall 2014 is the renewal of the Feds Societies agreement. This will be a pivotal time for both EngSoc and Feds to properly establish our desired relationship with one another. There is definitely a lot of room to improve on the current agreement, and EngSoc should be quite active in working with the Federation to come to a mutually agreeable position.
So there you have it, some of the major projects that are under way and hopefully getting settled within the next year or so. I hope that they all can move forward at an accelerated pace over the coming terms, and get to a place where implementation is possible. I am sure that the B-Society and incoming A-Society executive will be able to work on these as well, and hope that I may be able to continue my work on bettering life for the undergraduate engineers.
As always, questions and comments can be sent to me at president.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca
Thank you, and see you next issue for my final executive article (out of 20+)!
Leave a Reply