Hello everyone, and welcome back to campus. A special big hello to all the new first years that are joining us on-campus: welcome to uWaterloo! We’re Trevor and Juzer, two of your Federation of Students Councillors from Engineering. We represent engineering students’ interests within the Federation, and try to keep engineers updated on the issues that will be impacting them. All full-time students are members of the Federation. The Federation has over 300 clubs, services, and businesses that are meant to fulfill unmet needs that the university doesn’t provide. For more information check out feds.ca.
First off, the Federation is currently ramping up for the upcoming provincial election on October 6. The best source for post-secondary election news is itsyourvote.ca, a website created and maintained by the College Student Alliance and Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, the latter of which the Federation is a member of. By the time this goes to press, the only remaining election activities that will be happening on-campus are advance polls in the SLC which are happening today and tomorrow (Sept. 28 & 29). As well, FedS will be operating a shuttle to take students to their local polling station on Election Day in order to make the process easier. Unless you live on-campus, you can only vote in the SLC polling station in advance polling, so you’ll need to figure out where your local polling station is. In addition to itsyourvote.ca, check out feds.ca for more information on the candidates and all the information you’ll possibly need to figure out how to vote.
Next, an update on Fed Hall. As some of you may be aware, the university served notice in April to the Federation that they would not be renewing the lease with FedS for Fed Hall. Federation Hall was built in the 1980s as a student nightclub as there were very few off-campus alternatives at the time, and was funded by a fee that all students paid for 20 years. As Waterloo matured and more bars and clubs opened in the community, Fed Hall shifted to becoming a convention style of operation that provided space for large student gatherings. With the news that the lease will not be renewed, it essentially means that Fed Hall will no longer be under control of the Federation, and will instead be handled by the university. Over the past summer, there have been extensive negotiations between the university and the Federation to find a mutually-agreeable resolution, since there are ethical concerns with the university taking over a building that students paid for. At this time, negotiations are continuing and we hope that there will be something to announce soon on this issue. If you have any questions, concerns or comments on this, please let us know.
Finally, there are still three seats open for Engineering Councillors! That’s right, Engineering has five seats and only two are filled. There will be a by-election in early October (exact dates TBA) about this. However, if you are interested in potentially running or want more information on the job, please get in touch with us ASAP so we can keep you in the loop.
That’s about it for an update here. If you ever have any questions, concerns or comments of anything related to the Federation (including how to get involved in any aspect of it), please feel free to contact us at t.ek.jenkins@gmail.com and juzer89@gmail.com.
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