Student Services
EngSoc is developing a scholarship bank for students! Keep an eye on the EngSoc website for its impending release. If you know of scholarships which should be added to the system, let Scholarship director, Henry Chan (h2chan@engmail.uwaterloo.ca) know and he will be happy to hear from you.
Midterms are coming up! Make sure you submit your midterms for P*5 points or exam bank administrator, Owen Coutts, will hunt you down and glare at you, making you feel absurdly tiny.
WatPD
Enrollment in Quest for WatPD electives will be occurring soon. There will be an information session Monday February 28th, from 11:30-12:30 in TC2218 for those interested in learning more about the electives. Remember that you will be automatically enrolled in PDEng if you fail to select a PD elective.
Co-op
Good news: I can confirm co-op fees will be frozen this year, due to the freeze on salary increases. In general, when co-op and tuition fees continue to increase exponentially, it tends to be a function of the public sector mentality that salaries should rise faster than inflation, so it probably makes more sense to complain about fee increases as a taxpayer than to the faculty.
Lots of good discussion at Co-op Education Council. Natural Resources Canada is encouraging students to participate in their Progressive Internship Initiative, where students are expected to return for multiple terms, but are given additional mentorship and training. Keep an eye out for such postings in Jobmine- I strongly encourage fostering longer-term relationships through Co-op, and this program is one way to formalize that process.
If you are interested in research, a good co-op job to consider might be an undergraduate research internship. Available funding continues to increase, and now is a great time to consider taking a research position on campus. Summer terms have by far the most unemployed students, so be prepared to think outside the box when finding a co-op job. Remember you only need 5/6 co-op terms, so those short of funds might even consider taking an unofficial job for the experience and money, rather than remaining unemployed.
Waterloo Works
Waterloo Works will not be released to the university at-large until, at earliest, Fall 2011. Complete functionality, such as multi-stage matching, may not be released but this and other features are still on the table for its final form. My co-op rep Owen Coutts and I have been working with CECS to ensure student needs are addressed and they will continue to seek feedback as they go through the pilots. The new system will provide much more data for CECS to improve their operations and will ideally be easier and more intuitive for employers and students.
Policies
Not too much exciting business at most of my policy meetings. Systems Design approved adding a second tutorial hour to its first-year, half-weighted (ie. quarter-credit) courses, to bring the total hours to 4 (2 lecture, 2 tutorial). On one hand, it’s somewhat exciting to see a department take seriously students’ challenges with math, but it may set a dangerous precedent for increasing the number of hours per credit. It raised the interesting question of whether students are willing to do more work without credit if it will help improve their long-term success.
Vision 2015
The Town Hall forum occurred on February 2nd and students were given the opportunity to question the dean and associate deans about the challenges facing the faculty of engineering. I would encourage students to continue to be engaged, ask questions, offer suggestions and get involved with their departments as they move forward with their individual plans. http://www.engineering.uwaterloo.ca/Vision2015/
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