Hi A-Soc,
I hope everyone is getting interviews for jobs they want and landing their desired co-op placement. The good news is that the current students on co-op have achieved about 92% employment rate. Hopefully we can improve this number for our term. Other news from co-op is about the proposed engineering work term guidelines. These guidelines are intended to provide direction for job development and assessment to make sure it aligns with the CEAB accreditation criteria.
We had a Motivational Speaker, Sean Jackson, on Jan. 20th. He talked about diversity and community building within UW Engineering. He opened the eyes of his audience to the different kinds of people around us through his personal experiences.
The PDEng Task Force Team assembled by Dean of Engineering is meeting twice a week. They are changing PDEng from its fundamental assumptions. The team is going strong and we have accomplished a lot already. To find out more, please visit http://www.engineering.uwaterloo.ca/pdengrenewal for up to date news on our progress. One important development is that a sub-group of the Task Force will meet in the week of Feb 1st to focus on the ‘quick fix’ issues that we believe could be implemented more quickly in PDEng while we continue to rebuild the program as a whole. You may see these changes in your upcoming co-op term. Remember if you have something to say about PDEng, please let Sasha Avreline and myself know.
During the Engineering Faculty Council meeting on Jan. 19th where the Dean, Associate Chairs and Faculty Representative meet, the Dean of Arts, Ken Coates, was invited as a guest speaker. He mentioned the importance of encouraging Arts students to talk to Engineering students and encouraged inter-faculty student initiatives. Arts students take 95% Arts courses while Engineering students only have a few CSE electives. If the faculties could overcome this barrier, perhaps UW students can graduate better equipped to tackle the world. Please email me at asoc_vpedu@engmail.uwaterloo.ca to share your thoughts.
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