On June 22, the EngSoc Joint Council approved a referendum on whether or not to collect a $25 per term optional student fee for the building of Engineering 7. The referendum is contingent on the approval of Engineering 7 by the Board of Governors in late October 2014.
The optional fee will be collected after E7 is completed and open for use, and will continue to be collected until the fund totals $1 million. Any additional funds collected above the one million will be used to furnish undergraduate student spaces in the building. The fee may be refunded in a similar process to the Stanford Fleming Foundation Fee or the WEEF fee.
The referendum will be held in two parts: one voting session for A-Soc in Fall 2014 and one voting session for B-Soc in Winter 2015. The referendum must pass by a simple majority in both societies. A short debate at Joint Council was held with regards to the B-Soc referendum date. The referendum will be held separately from EngSoc elections and Feds elections in order to get opinions from for both societies.
A Chief Returning Officer will be elected at the next A-Soc and B-Soc council meetings. In addition to the CRO, a ‘Yes’ committee and a ‘No’ committee will be formed on each society to promote and educate undergrad engineering about the proposed fee. Interested people may apply to be on either committee at the beginning of the term in which the referendum is held.
Engineering 7 itself will be located right beside E5, with connections on every floor, and a bridge to E6. It will be 7 floors high, and connected to E5 with a glass atrium. The cost for the 220,000 square foot building will is projected to be $85 million.
Although the plan for the building is still to be formally approved, some potential ideas are available now. It is intended to be a space for Waterloo engineers to pitch their ideas, work collaboratively, and learn hands-on. The showpiece of the building will be the Engineering Ideas Clinic, an experimentation and re-engineering space where students can build and test new ideas. Plans also include a two-storey aerial robotics testing centre.
The Dean’s vision for E7 is to educate the “engineer of the future” who should and will have opportunities to “experience early, innovate early, (and) incubate early.” It’s an education model based on a very successful pilot program undertaken by the interdisciplinary mechatronics engineering program in 2010-12, and will be taken to the next level in E7 where students learn across different engineering disciplines, with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.
The first floor will be occupied by the Engineering Outreach office while the Conrad Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology will be housed on the second floor. The first floor will house dedicated student space: a large study room as well as social meeting areas. It will also feature an EngSoc coffee shop in which Dean Sullivan insists will be no doughnuts.
The third through sixth floors will essentially be extensions of E5. The third floor will be dedicated to MME department, providing more space for a second Mechatronics stream. The fourth and fifth floor will be dedicated to the ECE department, hopefully bringing a proper home to the programs. The sixth floor will be for Systems Design Engineering, meeting increased need from the Biomedical Engineering program. The seventh floor will be for the Dean’s office, collecting offices that are spread across various engineering buildings.
Each floor will provide a garage that will allow fourth year students to build and store their design projects. Fourth year students will also be pleased to learn that the student machine shop will double in size with a new addition in E7.
Completion of E7 is still a ways out. The groundbreaking is tentatively planned for Fall 2015, if approved in Fall 2014. Much of the funding has yet to be secured. The building needs to be approved by the Board of Governors and any student fee to support this building needs be approved by the engineering student population.
A successful referendum could show potential donors that this is a building that benefits students and the creation of the building is a partnership between students and the administration. The benefits could reach well beyond the one million dollar donation.
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