The first Senate meeting of the new fiscal year occurred on May 17th – it was a fairly light meeting, so there isn’t a whole lot to report back.
The Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) gave an in-depth presentation. They are a unit on campus that has a mandate of ‘improving teaching and making learning more effective’. The presentation summarized their accomplishments to date (they were impressive, but as students, it is fair to say that we would love to see our teaching continually improving) and provided a map for their future plans. When asked if faculty and TAs have enough incentive to use CTE’s services and become better teachers, they essentially side stepped the question. However, one should note that CTE is there to provide the service; in my opinion it should be up to the faculties to provide some incentive for their members to actually engage CTE and use the resources available. Perhaps EngSoc should play a role in advocating to the faculty to partake in CTE’s offerings? (visit http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/ if you’re interested in more info)
For those interested in Philosophy, you now have an option, literally: A variety of parties within the University have recognized the desire for students in programs like math, science and engineering to take Philosophy. They have found that many students get close to a minor but cannot attain all the credits needed due to strict program requirements. So, they’ve heard your concerns and created a Philosophy option! (Hurray!). 7 PHIL courses, 65% cumulative average in those 7 courses and BAM, you get your option. This option will be effective as of Sept. 1st, 2011.
Undergrad Admissions Update: Statistically, UW Admissions has determined it needed to make between 21.1 and 21.3 thousand offers to meet its admission targets. For the Sept. 2010 admissions round, they have made 22500 offers, to meet their goal of 6085 acceptances. (This 6085 is expected, because of past trends to erode to 5487 new students by the time Sept. Rolls around)
Comparing 2009 vs. 2010: 3208 offers vs. 3576 offers, 340 vs. 488 international visa offers, 2798 vs. 2969 scholarship offers.
At this time last year, 15 offers had been made to the UAE campus’ engineering program, this year we are at 23, 14 of which have also been offered scholarships. (these low numbers are typical at the moment as applications come in much later in the UAE region than they do in Canada)
Capital Projects (Buildings) Update: (Building, Target Completion, Budget, Gross Square Feet)
Quantum-Nano, 2011 Completion, 160 Million, 284000
E5, Spring 2010, 55 million, 176000
E6, Spring 2011, 41.4 million, 111000
I welcome you to contact me about anything listed above or anything you think I should be pursing on behalf of all engineering undergrads. I’d love to hear from you. (senate@engmail.uwaterloo.ca)
Let’s be proactive!
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