VPE? VPA? What’s the difference?

Hey, Engineering faculty (and other people who may be reading this)! My name is Andrew McBurney. I’m a 3A Software Engineering student, and I also happen to be your Vice President Academic (VPA) for the next 12 months. I’m ecstatic to be ‘B’-Society’s new VPA, and I hope that I can live up to your expectations as an EngSoc executive.

‘B’-Society’s structure has changed a bit since the last on-stream term, including changes to the Vice President Education (VPE) position. To accommodate for the changes to the position, EngSoc thought it fit to change the name from ‘Vice President Education’ to ‘Vice President Academic’ to reflect the edited structure. The VPA portfolio has all the original responsibilities of the VPE. This includes representing and advocating for all undergraduate Engineering students at various faculty, university-wide and co-op related councils. Additionally, the VPA position continues to provide academic resources, such as our online exam bank; services such as Course Critiques and Career Fair are all still under the VPE/VPA portfolio.

What has changed in the structure is that the VPA now has the Student Services Commissioner under its portfolio. This means services, such as Résumé Critiques, Interview Skills Workshop, Jobmine-athon (now Waterloo Works-athon), and technical workshops, such as AutoCAD, Soldering, and LaTex, are all under the VPA portfolio.

Speaking of services, we have a few upcoming this week! This Tuesday (January 17th) from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM in RCH 307, we have a Technical Interview Workshop in conjunction with Google. Additionally, we have a Command-Line Editing workshop taking place this Thursday (January 19th) from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM in MML (CPH 1327). Furthermore, this Friday (January 20th), we will be having the first ever ‘Waterloo Works-athon’ event from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM in MML. This event is a continuation of the Jobmine-athon event. We will have a brief 30 minute presentation by a CECA representative at the start of the session, which will highlight some of the differences between Jobmine and Waterloo Works, and some of the key new functionality.

In summary, I’m excited to represent and advocate for you on behalf of the Engineering Society, and I hope I am able to live up to your expectations. We have some exciting services that will be offered in the near future—so be sure to check them out! If you have any comments, questions, concerns or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact me at vpacademic.b@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca.

Also if you just want to chat about life, school, or The Smashing Pumpkins (seriously), you can probably find me in the Orifice (CPH 1327). Cheers!