Hello readers! Welcome to issue four in this home stretch of the term. I know how busy school gets around this time, so thank you to all the IW staff who still made time to write articles and copy edit. Special shoutout to Cameron who wrote more than his quota of articles for this issue! (By the way, I don’t actually give him a quota of articles. Regardless, he delivers above and beyond expectations, every time.) We had a fun time filling white space on Sunday night.
As always, if you have comments, questions, or concerns regarding anything you read here, feel free to send a letter to the editor at iwarrior@uwaterloo.ca. We would love to hear from you!
I have actually been planning this particular editorial for months: the topic I am about to address has bothered me since starting university, and I am so glad to have this opportunity to express my opinion. And of course, by “express my opinion” I really mean go off on a rant, although this is different than my previous ones in that it hits closer to home. Side note: I should change the header of this page to “Rant from the Editor” to maintain accuracy.
We hear so many interesting things in Waterloo Engineering: gg, get rekt, Darude Sandstorm, they don’t want you to win, no respect for Arts. I do wish this last one wasn’t included, but it’s definitely a thing. Feel free to come to my class and ask anyone what they think of Arts. Or Math or Science or any other faculty, for that matter. You may be shocked by the responses you get.
I certainly was.
I lived in V1 in first year. In 1A, our building was slightly more diverse than 1B in the summer: some of the stream 8s living on the third floor were studying Math. But the first and second floors of stream 4s were almost exclusively home to Engineering girls. To be specific, there were three non-Engineers. Once, in the first floor lounge, I heard this comment by a student from an adjacent building: “I can’t believe you have Arts kids living in your building! I feel so bad for you! I would kill myself if I had to deal with that.”
This was a very extreme unnecessary “that escalated quickly” twist on the hate that is sadly so normal. I don’t understand why it matters that a girl from the Arts faculty is sleeping in a room down the hall. To look at the bigger picture: I don’t understand how we can completely lack appreciation for other areas of study. In frosh week, we are taught that “Engineering loves Arts”, but do we actually?
This comment really bothered me, but when I was telling my friend in U of T pre-law that IB kids have nothing on engineering students’ superiority complex, she responded with, “I know I’m smarter in my field, so let them think whatever helps them sleep at night.” She obviously doesn’t even find it worth caring about. If that isn’t condescending to the engineers who think the world is in awe of them, I don’t know what is.
I think the reason I can appreciate Arts is because I am very Arts-minded. Engineers have a very different way of thinking, which became so apparent it was laughable within the first two weeks of the term. I am taking a mandatory Ethics for ECEs course this semester, and the discussion of “if the most ethical decision satisfies the most stakeholders, then shouldn’t we be able to determine the ethical decision by counting many people is benefited?” and “but aren’t opinions based in fact more valid?” made it very clear that the participants were thinking like engineers.
There is nothing wrong with that: they think like engineers, they are engineers, they will be good at their job, and everything adds up. The problem arises because they do not realize that Arts kids can think in a way that we generally don’t, but ignorance isn’t an excuse.
Let’s address some of the problematic phrases heard commonly amongst engineers.
“Arts don’t get jobs.”
First of all, who’s guaranteeing you a job? We always talk about it’s hard for Nanos or Chems to find relevant co-ops, or for Computers to get into hardware. Besides, every case and every area of study is different, and we can’t generalize that they will all be unemployed.
“Arts courses are easier to get high marks in.”
This one makes me laugh. If Arts was so easy, then why aren’t you in Arts? Let me tell you why: it’s because most engineers are not good at Arts.
Like I said earlier, Engineering takes a certain way of thinking, but it isn’t necessarily transferrable. Sure, we are supposed to be logical, analytical thinkers. But analytical in an Engineering context is different than analytical in an Arts context.
I still haven’t taken an elective, but I suspect the attractiveness of a CSE depends primarily on a minimal writing component and the ease of receiving a high mark. So before you say that Arts are easier, I would like to see you take a legit Arts course and not just an easy CSE. Then let me know how stupid everyone is and how much fun you had (trying) to write a paper.
“No respect for Arts.”
How is that a thing? How can you claim that an entire faculty is not worthy of respect? How can you judge when you have no idea what you’re talking about?
Yes, Arts kids have less hours of class than we do. Maybe (some of them) can’t code or solve differential equations. Again, we have to be careful not to generalize. Just as there are arts-minded Engineers, I’m sure there are mathematically-inclined Arts students. Besides, does a more flexible schedule imply that they are less intelligent than us, or unworthy of respect? Of course not.
In Engineering, everything is a competition. There is an outlook that we must be smarter if our life sucks more.
We like to complain about how we pay double the average tuition, we like to screenshot our schedules (not necessarily so we know when to go to class, because this is generally a matter of showing up to class at 8:30 and not moving for hours. I for one don’t know my schedule), but so we can show it off to others. We like to complain about how many courses we’re taking and how many labs and generally how much time we spend in class. We like to brag about how much our life sucks. And in ECE, we like to believe that our lives suck more than everyone else’s. I’m just as guilty of this as the next person.
Yes, we do pay double the average tuition, and we do spend twice the average number of hours in class. But being busier doesn’t mean that we are better.
We have a problem with making strong and grossly unfounded generalizations about all other programs when there are so many reasons why people enter a chosen field or attend a particular school. Every story takes more than a one word answer to fully appreciate.
I have had the “I don’t know what I want to do with my life” conversation with so many Engineers. It may seem that being in a professional program guarantees a particular career path and smooth future, but considering we can enter any level of related or unrelated technical or non-technical work, the future looks more like a black box. So many of us have yet to discover our passion, so how can we hate on somehow who without a doubt knows what they want in life?
I want to use two of my highschool teachers as examples.
First of all, teachers get a lot of hate because “those who can’t do, teach” (which I think is very unfair) and because of its minimum post-secondary schooling. But to be honest, this is true with engineering as well. I know a lot of people who went into engineering because it’s five years—although the joke is on you if you thought it would be an “easy” five years—and you’re out with a piece of paper proving you’re employable. How can we hate on other people for doing this?
That wasn’t supposed to be my point.
My high school Biology teacher was incredibly smart and super enthusiastic about the material he taught. I remember often sitting bored in class and wondering how he could be so excited, especially considering he was covering the exact same slides with several classes back to back. And on top of that, teaching the same material year after year must get old, no? Apparently not. I could not understand it, but points for passion.
My Grade 12 IB English teacher in Grade 12 had a different type of passion. She loved working with young adults, having discussions, and helping us learn and grow as writers and analytical thinkers. She is a teacher because she loves being a teacher. How can you hate on someone who so obviously loves their work?
Passion always deserves respect.
Note: 1. I realize that my pronoun use is very inconsistent. I am, in fact, in Engineering. I just don’t always think like an Engineer. 2. I don’t like generalizing, but I have yet to find more than a couple Engineers who don’t hate on Arts. I hope that I have managed to convert a few more haters.
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