Hey! Just a description of this column; I’m going to be digging down into the older issues of the Iron Warrior to give a little glimpse of the past of the newspaper and Waterloo Engineering as whole. This term, I’m going to review issues from Fall 2011. If you really want, you can get ahead and read them yourself (I would recommend doing this for your classes instead of this column) at http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/
So let’s dive in to a section of issue 1 of the term, starting with the news. There was a report of scientists providing “inexact, incomplete, and contradictory information” about a 6.3 magnitude earthquake which killed over 300 people in Italy in 2009. The trial was being held at this time and they were being charged for manslaughter, and was adjourned until October of that month. Thus, the Iron Warrior article never actually provided the verdict, but it turns out the scientists were sentenced to 6 years in prison. Kind of eerie how I picked this article right as soon as the Central Mexican Earthquake hit. In other news, the GRT implemented new iXpress and route changes, such as the 200 and 201 now having new stops at King and Victoria, trips from Laurier to Conestoga Mall, and many other small logistical changes to their other bus routes as well.
An opinion piece that caught my eye was the “For/Against Saving FED Hall” debate. The issue was that the University wanted to take over FEDS Hall, which is a building paid for by students, resulting in less student space. The ‘for side’ mentioned tons of points about student fee increase and the loss of trust with administration. The ‘against side’ mentioned how it was just a takeover and nothing more; student events and services would still be held there, and that we weren’t using it to it’s full potential anyway. The paper doesn’t mention anything about what actually happened, but it DID bring my attention to the renaming competition the University held in 2014. A lot of these names probably shouldn’t go in this newspaper, but a large number of responses (about 45%) were…’FED Hall.’ So I guess it’s safe to assume the University DID takeover and the students were not happy. Nonetheless, you can probably find some of these names if you google around and find the reddit thread.
Let’s take a look back into EngSoc history. One article from 2011 mentions how an alumni event allowed the author to speak with someone from the first engineering cohort of graduates from Waterloo. Some interesting facts from the article include that POETS used to be the EngSoc office and the story of it becoming a pub is ‘unpublishable.’ Other cool things mentioned by the alumni include:
– The Imprint used to be the newspaper of the Engineering Faculty. It was started as a rival to the Chevron, which has recently reappeared on campus. The Chevron was eventually shut down due to biased political views.
– The jackets used to be navy blue. Why not black? Black leather jackets were considered too closely associated with gang activity, and thus the jackets were ordered in navy blue to avoid any misconceptions.
– Arcade games used to be set up in POETS. We’re talking Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man, you name it. They were there.
Now I wish I was here in the 1960s, as I would have had a great time in POETS. Then again, I wouldn’t be in nano since it wouldn’t have existed.
And finally, the humour section, which seemed it was tin soldier-esque despite being in a full issue. You have writers in programs like ‘2Z Handsomeness Engineering’ and ‘1B Journalism.’ The first article I read was “Big Things: World’s Largest Earth Mover (aka Giant Ass Saw Thing (aka PHYS 115 midterm)).” Now based on that I’m just going to guess that PHYS 115 hasn’t changed much in the last 5-10 years. Anyway, the article speaks about the V CAT D8R, a machine that could move 91 million pounds at half a kph (which is pretty fast for a big thing). Another article from CBG. Inc. – 3B Sexuality, Marriage, and Family, gives us lonely guys here advice to meet someone new. They (SARCASTICALLY) talk about the complexity of girls (or guys) that other guys want to meet in a biology-textbook kind of way. I’ll copy the main point of the article so some of you lucky fellas will have a date just in time for midterms. “Say hi to them, making sure to use their first and last name in the introduction. If you happen to know about something in their life (it’s their birthday, they just got a job, their childhood pet passed away), this is the time to bring it up. This will make them feel like they should already know who you are, and will make them feel guilty for not knowing you. Once these feelings start flooding through them, it is your time to strike. CBG takeaway of the week: Guilting people is the #1 way to meet them.”
That ends The Rusty Knight for this week. I really enjoyed writing this column and stay tuned for next week’s history of the Iron Warrior.
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