the iron warrior: volume 24, issue 4
DESCRIPTION
Winter 2003, Issue 4. Initially released on 14 March 2003. Editor-in-Chief: Jonathan Ng.TRANSCRIPT
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO ENGINEERING SOCIETY volume 24 issue 4 | 14 March 2002
“Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.” – Jane Wagner
http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/
On top of classes, these students werelearning long soliloquies and doing
blocking.
How do engineering students manage tofind the time to be in a play?
One way that the group this term foundtime to participate in this term's play,Moonchildren, is through 10pm practices.Alex Matan (4B Electrical), who plays aMarket Researcher, added, "There wasonce a practice at 11am on a Sunday - thatwas the worst."
Time isn't the only obstacle that the grouphad to face. They also had to be verymindful of the faculty of EnvironmentalStudies who generously let the engineer-ing students use the "Green Room" for theplay. The students were required to com-pletely put up and tear down the heavy setafter each of their dress rehearsals. Thismade for some long nights. The stagemanager, Sandra Lê commented.. "yeah,we have to tear down everything, but youcan't beat the price."
Why do they do it? Vasu Daggupaty, (3B
Systems) joked "The chicks dig it." Whatwas clear from watching the group, how-ever, was that they truly loved what theywere doing.
The play was not only a display of enor-mous dedication, but also skills. JamesRowe (Enviro-Chem), stood out in hisportrayal of Bob, an emotionally with-drawn student. His delivery was both nat-ural and convincing. Lisa Rehak (3BSystems) did a good job at balancing theditzyness of her character with a humanaspect. She kept her character, whichcould have got annoying pretty quickly,entertaining.
The math student Norman first appeared tobe an extremely one-dimensional cliché.It was almost painful to see an engineeringstudent portray such a negative depictionof technical students. However, this char-acter developed a lot in the second act andwas well-performed.
The characters overall were easy to relateto. Although the play is centered on agroup of graduating students living togeth-er in an apartment in the 60's, they faceissues which are not that dissimilar to con-cerns of students today: impending war,relationships, parental expectations andmarks.
Overall, this play is recommended. The5$ is a fair price for the entertainmentvalue.
The University of Waterloo’sEngineering Society, seeing the nomi-
nations and the vacancy in the VP Internalslot, decided to reopen the nominationperiod. These are the candidates for thesix positions available:
President: Josh LevitzVP External: Jeff AlfonsiVP Internal: Amy Gill, Karim Lallani,Paul Paquet, Matt StricklandVP Education: Jenn Bell, Emma Saask
VP Finance: Dave Johnson, GrantHolohanWEEF Director: Erin Young
Blurbs describing each candidate are onpage 5-6.
There will be an election forum, where allthe candidates will give their speeches andanswer questions on Tuesday, March 18thand the election will be held onWednesday, March 19th.
Please come out and vote!
Engineering Society Re-Election
Janna Hickson
4B Systems
Playing and Acting in OurSpare Time
Various Play Pictures:(All horizontal pic-tures from top to bottom, then the verticalpicture)
1) Sandwiches for Protest
2) A guy reading a book, a girl blowingbubbles, and a musician.
3) Dick (Richard) speaks to Norman.
4) Merry Christmas to Ruth, from Mikeand Cootie (Melvin)
5) Standoff between Dick and Bob.
MoT and Semi-Formal Pictures - P.10
and 11
Co-op Tips - P.8 PCP: Should Feds suethe University? P.7
Hi! With this installment of myeditorial I’ll have been the most sleepless cumulative in my entire5-year career here in theUniversity of Waterloo. But thispaper will still keep chugging on,sleep or no sleep.
1) Parking
As I just realized, all the newbuildings that have come up for(mostly) the Engineers’ benefit hasa huge cost: space. It’s literallyimpossible to have a event thatinvolves cars at the Davis Centre,because there is simply no way topark there. And as there was anemergency in the Explorations bar-becue, I had to take precious timeto get my car and get the bunsback. Luckily, nothing serioushappened while I was gone.
My point is that space is at anextremely high premium in the Engineering buildings now,because we’re building over thatspace again, and again. This isgoing to work in the short term,but what if we expand further?
2) Looming End
The end is close. So close I cantaste it, see it, smell it. I’ll bedone my Engineering degree in alittle more than a month from now.Having the end right in front ofyou is a lot different than having iteven one term away. You start todig up old memories, balance thatagainst what you wanted to do,and see if it matches up. And itcould. I found that when I com-
pared what I wanted to do to whatI did do, I was pretty satisfied withmyself. I could say I did some-thing worthwhile while I was here,and that to me is enough.
3) Current Events
Explorations was great (other thanthe emergency with the barbecue).Campus Day was fun too.Gradball I’d imagine would begreat, but I seem to be the last per-son on earth to get a table. Thereare going to be elections now, and-lots of people got pied. There’s alot of stuff for people to do, andit’s stuff that’s not always targetedto the same people. That’s a goodthing.
3) Spirit
Why is spirit important? I mean,it’s just people doing seeminglymeaningless stuff, right?
Well, it represents how well peo-ple work together. It’s very impor-tant for most engineers to worktogether, because that’s what theyhave to do a lot of the time - mostprojects are scaled so that it takesmore than one person to do - eventhe Hardware and Software pro-jects.
I wonder what happened toElectrical and ComputerEngineering spirit? Do we haveit? Was it there in the first place?Why?
The reason I asked was that E&CEwas having trouble filling outExplorations and Campus Daybooths.
These are very important issues, asthey affect the very integrity of theprogram and the students who are
in it.
4) Sign off
Well, then, I’ll have to sign off foranother speed-editorial. I’llpromise to make the next onelonger. I hope you do well onexams and projects.
The Newspaper of the University ofWaterloo Engineering Society
Editor-in-ChiefJonathan Ng
Assistant EditorJay Liu
Photo EditorCindy Zheng-Ming Bao
Sung Hon Wu
Layout EditorHiu Lam Yau
Technical EditorWinona Tong
Copy EditorJohn Olaveson
WebmasterJames Schofield
Distribution ManagerNaoreen Hasan
Business ManagerVacant
StaffRyan BayneRuchi BhallaJenelle Chen
Kiran DhaliwalJoseph FungJeff Henry
Janna HicksonIllan Kramer
Sandra LêJosé Penate
Kareem Shehata
Contributors
Jeff AlfonsiJenn Bell
Dallas CardDave Clegg
David JohnsonAfsheen Khan
Josh LevitzKarim LallaniDaniel Martis
Mike McWilliamPreya Mistry
Stephanie PurnellDan RobinsonMatt Strickland
2 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Letter from the Editor
Jonathan Ng
4B Computer
Editor-in-Chief
Questions? Comments?
We welcome letters and feedbackfrom all our readers. Please emailus at:
The Iron Warrior is a forum for thought provokingand informative articles published by the EngineeringSociety. Views expressed in The Iron Warrior arethose of the authors and do not necessarily reflect theopinions of the Engineering Society.The Iron Warrior encourages submissions from stu-dents, faculty and members of the university commu-nity. Submissions should reflect the concerns andintellectual standards of the university in general. Theauthor's name and phone number should be included.All submissions, unless otherwise stated, become theproperty of The Iron Warrior, which reserves theright to refuse publication of material which it deemsunsuitable. The Iron Warrior also reserves the rightto edit grammar, spelling and text that do not meetuniversity standards. Authors will be notified of anymajor changes that may be required. Mail should be addressed to The Iron Warrior,Engineering Society, CPH 1327, University ofWaterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1. Our phonenumber is (519) 888-4567 x2693. Our fax number is(519) 725-4872. E-mail can be sent [email protected]
3F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Opinion
Based on what has happened over thelast few weeks, it is safe to say IRC
has lost its once "untouchable" status.There are a number of people who nolonger feel the Obligation applies to them,though they seem to take part in it all thesame. It's become a ritual that everyoneundergoes to be part of the group, but fewactually care about whatit means.
Personally, the ceremo-ny meant a lot to me,but only because I madeit that way. I don'tbelieve in God, but Ibelieve that I have thepower to make a differ-ence and it's up to me touse that power wisely.Naive as that maysound, I believe that the decisions I makehave an impact, that the designs I producewill make someone else's life either betteror worse, and I personally want to makesure only the former happens.
Having been told what the Iron Ring isabout some time ago, I was really lookingto forward my Obligation. I stronglyagreed with its message, though I didn'tread the actual text until ring fitting. Atthat point, I knew I was going to havesome issues with some of the finer pointsof the ceremony itself.
Obviously, I was going to have to dosomething about the references to Godsince that's simply something I don'tbelieve in. The second was that the wholething seemed to revolve around mechies.Much fun as iron is, dedicating myselfunder such a thing when I'll spend most ofthe rest of my life dealing with electronsdoesn't make a whole lot of sense.
At that point I could have complainedabout the whole process. They did a goodjob of removing any sexist references and
still kept things real,why can't they do thesame with God? Maybeit's just the atheist in me,but I personally believethat the Obligationwould be stronger if itdidn't rely on a higherpower.
I also could have com-plained about how muchthe MC stumbled over
half of the ceremony as he read from thebinder in front of him. I managed to mem-orize the obligation in the half hour we hadbefore the ceremony started, why couldn'the have done a better job?
For all of my complaining, the ceremonythis year wasn't about to change. I think itshould change in the future - has to changeif it's going to stay relevant - but I had todecide whether or not to accept it as it isnow. So, when they got around to the partsthat involved things I don't believe in, Ichanged the words in my head and thewords that I said into things that I consid-
er relevant. This way I still get to take partin the message, and the parts I didn'tappreciate didn't hinder me.
What I don't understand is why did somepeople take part in the ceremony if theydidn't agree with the message? It's not likethey didn't know, they had to sign the cardat ring fittings to get through. Did theyread it, or were just following the herd asthey passed through the room? If the lastpart is true, then what does that say aboutthe graduating class?
In the five or moreyears leading up tograduation, all we hearabout is the stag. Howmany days to IRS? It'sone big party to cele-brate the payoff for allof that hard work, totake pride in what we'veaccomplished, and takea moment to tear downsome of the carefully constructed socialwalls. Campus can often be an inveterateand stodgy place, and it's in desperate needof the occasional shaking up to preventeveryone from taking things too seriously.IRS does just that: it gives us an excuse todo the things we'd normally be far toorepressed to even admit wanting to do, andget away with it.
The ECE department got things complete-ly backwards when they Prof. Freemansent out his missive about how he was"disappointed" at our behaviour duringIRS. Judging by that text the point of theevent was completely misunderstood, and
their approach will backfire. IRS is one ofthe few chances for us to let loose, if youput limits on that, what do they think thereactions will be? Based on what I've seenfrom upcoming classes, I doubt they'llhave courtesy to use chalk.
But there can be no light without darkness.Without the responsibilities that come withthe Iron Ring, the Iron Ring Stag justbecomes another meaningless party.There are a number of people who would
probably take that as agood thing, but they'dalso find a good thing inany excuse to party -simply having survivedfive years of school isprobably good enough.Personally, I've workedlong and hard to earn therespect of the people I'veworked with, both onand off campus. That's atrend I intend on follow-
ing for as long as I possibly can, and Ithink that's a much more important reasonto celebrate.
The Problems with IRS and IRC... What Does it Mean?
Kareem Shehata4B Electrical
Iraq, that one word has dominated thenews for the last week, the last month,
even the last year. It has led to an endlessof articles and columns that have exploredevery conceivable viewpoint on the story.So numerous are the articles that thiscolumnist, an avid reader of news, filtersout any Iraq storybecause they do notanything new to say.To my surprise lastweek, I found aninteresting article,Will Canada SupportWar, or Not? Onepart of the articlemade quite an impres-sion to my mind. Thearticle stated an Ipros-Reid poll found 36percent of respondents thought the USwere the greatest threat to world peace,more those who said Iraq, North Korea,and Al Qaida.
For me, it raised the question, what is athreat to world peace? What is worldpeace? My idea of world peace has alwaysbeen a utopian state, where everyone loveseach other and sings the Barney song. Butit is not as simple as that. Peace is the
absence of conflict and war. And in thatsense, the Americans are the biggest threatto world peace. Last year the Americansfought a war in Afghanistan, and they arepoised to start a war in (that word again)Iraq. In fact, if studying the past decade,Americans have been involved in a lot ofconflicts, from wars in Kosovo, Bosnia,and the original gulf war. If there is a con-flict, depend on Americans to be in thethick of it.
But peace is not a utopian state. It is cer-tainly preferable to war, but it is not some-thing to be desired at any price. If by
magic there were no warin Iraq, I doubt Iraqiswould celebrate much.They would still be tor-tured, starved, and mur-dered by a cruel dictatorwho has used chemicalweapons against his ownpeople. At the same time,Saddam Hussein and hiscronies profit from sellingIraq’s oil, leaving Iraqisnothing from their own
rich resources. The cost of peace would bethe blood of ordinary Iraqis.
History shows that the cost of peace can betoo high. For example, imagine if Lincolnhad pursued peace with those who foughtfor slavery. Imagine if the allies had pur-sued peace with Hitler. And finally, imag-ine the people of Kosovo if peace had beenpursued with those who wanted to commitethnic cleansing. And now, imagine the
people of Iraq if peace is pursued withSaddam Hussein.
I remember when I was in high school Itook a history class. One of the projects inthat class was to point out world troublespots. One of the presentations that weredone was about Afghanistan. The presen-ter talked about how repressive the Talibanwere and how they had created this incred-ible ideology of hatred.My thought then, it is sofar away, there is no rea-son for to care, for theyare so poor and power-less. If we left theTaliban alone, surelysomeday it will collapseon its own. Of course, Iwas wrong.
The lesson I take out ofwhat has happened in thelast two years is no matter how remote andnon threatening it sounds, letting an ideol-ogy of hatred to grow and prosper willcome back to haunt us all. It does not mat-ter if this is related to Osama Bin Laden,because all this hatred leads back to thesame horrifying results.
Those who oppose war just keep forgettingabout this fact when they repeat that thiswar is just about oil. They act as if noth-ing has happened in the last 2 years.Perhaps it is nostalgia for something easi-er, a time when the world was not so men-acing, a time where it seemed conflictcould always be solved by dialog. I too
long for those times, but the past will notcome back by trying to relive it, like leav-ing inspectors in Iraq and leaving SaddamHussein in power, dreaming that he ishandcuffed.
This does not mean I long for war, or thatI support the Americans all the way. Theyhave not listened to those who criticize it,or respected those who feel reluctant about
releasing the darknessof war upon Iraq.George Bush has notinspired confidence hecan rebuild Iraq by howhe left Afghanistan torebuild itself. But thisdoes not mean he ismore of a threat thenSaddam Hussein.
In the end, I ask myselfthis question, “Does a
person like Saddam Hussein belong in the21st century?” And if he does belong, thenwhat does that say about us, about oursense of what is a threat and what is not.
Who is a Threat to World Peace?
Sung Hon Wu
3A Computer
“The article stated anIpros-Reid poll found36 percent of respon-dents thought the US
were the greatestthreat to world
peace...”
“Personally, the cere-mony meant a lot to
me, but only because Imade it that way.”
“Without the responsi-bilities that come with
Iron Ring, the IronRing Stag just becomes
another meaninglessparty.”
“[I thought that] if weleft the Taliban alone,surely someday it willcollapse on its own. I
was wrong.”
4 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
EngSoc
ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE REPORTS
President Report
Spring is almost here...and so are finals.Only so many of these IW spews left!
Gotta make 'em last!
As many of you may know by now, theOrifice was broken into on the night ofMonday March 3rd. Apart from a greatdeal of damage done to our cabinets andsuch, the perpetrators made off with $80 incharity cash, a digital camera, a digitalvideo camera, the EngSoc laptop, andextra keys for many of the society busi-
nesses. This last theft resulted in the re-keying of many of the locales that thesociety operates. We have registered thetheft with UW Police and are co-operatingfully with them in order to retrieve thestolen goods and to catch the criminalsresponsible for this and over 40 morethefts across campus since January. So farnothing has come of this co-operation, asthe thieves continue to run free.
The executives from both societies metthis past weekend, and after nine hours anumber of issues were decided upon. Newsecurity systems have been jointlyapproved and will be installed in theOrifice, the C&D and in POETS in orderto protect these offices and student hang-outs. Unfortunately in some cases this willresult in more restrictive policies and pro-cedures regarding the use of these estab-
lishments. This is an unfortunate reality ofhaving to protect these areas, and one thatI hate as much as the next person.However, these steps are necessary to safe-guard the equipment and items on whichwe spend your $14 per term, and I ask thatyou please be understanding as we imple-ment these new procedures as the termcomes to a close.
EngSoc elections are in full swing rightnow! Good luck to all candidates that arerunning, congratulations to those whohave been acclaimed (pending approval, ofcourse!), and to all voters I encourage youto attend the candidate's forum in CPHFoyer on Tuesday March 18th at 11:30AM. Voting will take place on WednesdayMarch 19th in CPH Foyer, so come on outand cast your vote in order to keep EngSocstrong and relevant.
On a final note, congratulations to the BusPush, Wheelchair Basketball, NationalEngineering Week and Charities directorswho have gone absolutely bonkers overthe last two weeks running some absolute-ly fantastic events for all of you out there!Thanks to all the profs who played alongwith our Pi-Throw competition, and I'mreally looking forward to an awesome finalfew weeks here. Stay tuned for even morefrom your Engineering Society as the termcomes to a close in a few weeks time!
Well, we’re past midterms now, butthe fun has been non-stop. There
have been numerous external events in thepast few weeks:
- La Resistance won the Wheelchair bas-ketball tournament last weekend—theCivs were runners up! Congratulations!
- The annual Bus Push for Big Brothersand Big Sisters was a huge success, alsolast weekend. Thanks to Lesley and Kathyfor a great event! My favourite part wasthe article in the Record the next day refer-ring to Dave Clegg as “a sweaty fourth-year student”—good times.
- Explorations was held this past week.Every year, students in grades 6 throaugh 8come to Waterloo to have some fun withengineering. The kids tour around and getto see everything from a six-legged robotto ice cream made with liquid nitrogen.We had a lot of fun this year—despite theweather whilst I was barbequing!
- Women In Engineering has had a fewevents—including a “Women inTechnology” night and a WIE Receptionthis past Thursday. The Women inTechnology evening was held withWomen In Math and featured speakers onvarious topics including sexual harassmentin the workplace.
- The Bridging the Gap lecture series fin-ished up last week with Dr. Tighe from thecivil department giving a presentation onopportunities in engineering. Thanks to allour presenters this term.
- National Engineering Week was last
week and every day saw a new seminarshowcasing another aspect of engineering
Phew! So this is one of my last instal-ments of my VPX Report. It’s been a lotof fun as well as a lot of work. Hope it’sbeen as good for you as it has for me!
Dave Clegg
President
Vice-President External Report
Vice-President Internal Report
Seeing as I missed the deadline lastweek, I decided all my avid readers
would be eagerly waiting a great iron war-rior spew from me. Or, more realistically,most of you didn't even notice. Either way,here we go.
So the last few weeks have been ridicu-lously busy with EngSoc events, projects,midterms, and who knows what else, butthe exec really appreciate the great atten-
dance we've had at all our events. I'd liketo point out immediately that B**5, one ofthe greatest nights of the term, was won byyour very own executives! There was real-ly no competition but we thank all theteams for trying!
The upcoming schedule is just as busy aswe head toward finals, so come on out toget a night off here and there. Tonight andtomorrow, EngDrama is putting on theproduction "Moonchildren", so hopefullyyou already have your tickets. The play isalways one of the highlights of the termand this term will be no exception I'm sure.Sunday the 16th is the EngHockey cup sosign up your teams in the orifice if youhaven't already. Wednesday the 19thbrings us TalEng. For the first time ever
we will be having it at Loose ChangeLouie’s (underagers admitted) so sign upyour great talent, whatever that may be,today - everyone make sure to come outand heckle the rookie MC, Dave Johnson(and the presenters of course). Everyoneshould have their video cameras alreadytaping for the film festival on Thursday the20th - the wonderful 3A mechs whobrought you "Ball in the Groin" are strongcontenders for the prize this year, as theyhave more than 20 minutes this year toprepare a quality film. And looking ahead,the final EngSoc meeting, the Potluck, willbe held on Wednesday, March 26th.
One more small note: As we are gettingready for a new exec to come in, it'd be great to hear your final thoughts
about us, the society, or otherwise. Any ideas we here from you wecan pass onto the incoming exec to make sure the state of the society contin-ues on its great path. See you all in the next few weeks and continue towork hard for finals.
Josh "Still no Bomber eh? Ah well,Weavers can take my money now" Levitz
Steph Purnell
VP External
Josh Levitz
VP Internal
Vice-President Education Report
Finals are just around the corner and thepace of the term is really picking up. It
seems like every day there is a project,assignment, quiz or presentation due.With all this distracting you guys I justwanted to ask you to please take the time
to properly fill out your professor evalua-tions. These are an invaluable tool for pro-fessors and are used to improve courses forfuture students. Also, the results of theseevaluations directly affect a professor’ssalary, so weigh your judgment according-ly.
Thank-you to everyone who participatedin the debt load survey. Your results help toinform the faculty of the current hardshipsthat the 15% tuition increases are creating.If you wish to find out more about the cur-rent financial situation of Ontario universi-
ties and students check out the article Iwrote on this subject in this Iron Warrior.For further information the backgroundinformation I based this article on is avail-able in the orifice.
Engineering Society Executive electionsare upon us and I urge all engineering stu-dents to participate. Come out to theforum, listen to the debates and make yourvoice heard.
For all of you getting ready to go away onwork term, don’t forget that next term you
will need to have your resume in HTMLformat, so I advise working on this overthe work term.
Dan Robinson
Dan Robinson
VP Education
5F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
EngSoc
Hello Everybody,
I now get to write to you in a different con-text than I am used to as VPI. I get to letyou know that I could very well be yournext President acclaimed, provided I'vemade less than one third of you dislike me.
I want to start off by saying I am genuine-
ly excited for this opportunity. For the last16 months, I have been working as VPInternal and enjoying every minute of it(well most minutes at least). I developed agreat understanding of the EngineeringSociety, and heard numerous opinions onthe state of it. From these and my experi-ence, I feel I am definitely ready to take onthe larger responsibility of beingPresident. I want to bring about somechanges, with your help and direction ofcourse, and being President gives me agreat chance to do this. The society isgoing to get better than it already is, and Iwill work my #@! off to make sure it does!
I'll throw a couple ideas out I have rightnow but there will be many more coming
as the term comes to a close. First of all, Iam a huge advocate for interfaculty, andmoreso for interschool, relations. I havealready made numerous contacts through-out Ontario schools and intend to get someevents running between us. I also intend tofollow up on the prank side of things inWaterloo - I'll leave that at that for nowthough, but stay tuned! One event thatinspired me this term was the ski trip puton by special events. We had numerouspeople on that trip which had never been toan engsoc event and it was great to seethat. With the new exec, I want to try toimplement more of this type of event, andget participation levels in EngSoc up to anew high. And numerous upgrades arebeing discussed right now for POETS and
the orifice, and besure that I will be fol-lowing up on all of them!
Anyway that's my short little message fornow. I just want to let you all know a bitabout my ideas, but there are a lot morewhich I won't mention here. I look forwardto the chance to represent you in allaspects of university life - whether it beabout tuition or bar closures - and I hopeyou trust me to do it. I wish all the othercandidates good luck with their campaignsand I'll be seeing you all soon.
Josh Levitz
ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE CANDIDATE REPORTS
President Candidate Report
Josh Levitz
PresidentCandidate3A Mechanical
Hey everyone,
Many of you may not know me. My nameis Jeff Alfonsi, a second year punk in Systems Design. I am an ESSCO projectdirector and a big ski bum!
As VP External, my main goal is toimprove Waterloo's relationship with other Ontario and Canadian universities. I hopeto help organize inter-university
and faculty events (such as AHS night andDUSTED), so that we can forge new relationships. Furthermore, I will encour-age UW students to participate in a large variety of engineering competitionsand events.
I think that we will have a great year filledwith new events and traditions.
I hope all of you will participate in exter-nal events and competitions to help build a strong and personable reputationfor Waterloo among our engineering peers.
Cheers,
Jeff Alfonsi
Vice-President External Candidate Report
Jeff AlfonsiVP External Candidate, 2A
Systems
Vice-President Internal Candidate Report
Hello! My name is Amy Gill. I’m run-ning for VP Internal. For those of you
who don’t know me, I’m in 2A Chem. Icome from a big family in small ruralnorthwestern Ontario town. I’m involvedwith the upcoming frosh week, in the engi-neering play, campus day, explorations,
semi-formal and just basically helping outwherever I can. I really enjoy beinginvolved and working with people. Beforeuniversity I spent a lot of time helping toorganize hockey tournaments, coachingringette teams and teaching and participat-ing in local community groups. For aboutas long as I can remember I’ve enjoyedorganizing and planning.
As VPI I believe that it will be very impor-tant, with the upcoming double cohort, toexpend extra energy into incorporatingmore of the young students into the engi-neering community. Getting people out
and involved in activities will be key.Creating events, theme nights and such,which they can help to organize for them-selves and their peers, can definitely add tothe overall sense of community.University is a time full of memories.Having participation memorabilia (patch-es) available from events, eg: bus push’03, E.O.T ’04, mud bowl ’06, is a newway to remember some of our fondestmemories, and they would definitely livenup those coveralls. These are just a taste ofsome of the ideas I’ve got, but really we’rehere for you. During the next week whenyou see me around don’t hesitate to ask
any questions or bring any suggestionsthat you may have. You’ve got a greatgroup of candidates for this election avail-able to you so definitely come out to theforum and approach us at any time. Haveyour questions answered by us. Witheveryone’s interest and participation thiscan be a fantastic election. Hope to be ableto put my ideas to work for you in thefuture.
VP Internal CandidateAmy Gill2A Chem
Amy Gill
VP InternalCandidate2A Chemical
Matt Strickland, a 2A ElectricalEngineering student, claimed
recently that as an "internationally knownfigurehead person" and "influential godfa-ther of this country," he's got enough pow-erful friends to become EngSoc’s new
Vice President Internal.
Strickland claims ties - shady, under-ground ties - to the likes of Prime MinisterJean Chretien, US Vice President DickCheney, numerous CIA and KGB affiliatesand several Hollywood celebrities. Theserun deep, according to the first-time candi-date, who repeatedly has referenced someof these alleged relationships when askedwhat he would bring to the position. Inaddition to these celebrity links, Mattbrings three school terms of raw experi-ence to the table. He’s been his class
EngSoc rep since 1A, held WheelchairBasketball and Class Rep Advisor direc-torships, been an Engineering Froshleader, and sits on the ECE spirit commit-tee. At a campaign rally held Tuesdaymorning in MC 1085, upwards of 100 stu-dents and one calculus professor bravedthe early 8:30 start to come show their sup-port for the young VPI candidate.Speaking from the back of the class,Strickland expressed some of the goals hehopes to accomplish if elected to the posi-tion. These include helping directors bet-ter communicate with classes about their
events, fostering more inter-class competi-tions and challenges, and making theEngineering Society more open and acces-sible to all its members. Lowering hisvoice and looking shiftily around him,Matt also took the time to praise the threeother candidates running against him.“They’re all top notch people, really!” Hestated. “I think it’s going to be a closerace.” Just remember to vote Strickland onMarch 19th!
Matt Strickland
VP InternalCandidate2A Electrical
I’m running for Vice President Internal(VP-Int), because I’d like to make many
improvements to the Engineering Society.My main priority as VP-Int will be toincrease the spirit within the EngineeringFaculty. As it stands right now, only a lim-
ited number of classes participate in vari-ous events planned by EngSoc. To solvethis problem, I will increase the lines ofcommunication within EngSoc. I’m goingto create a few new directorships includingcommunications & spirit director. Thecommunications director would help pro-mote EngSoc events and ensure that allclasses are kept up-to-date with all issuessurrounding EngSoc. The spirit directorwould be in charge of planning spirit days,parties and various other spirit events. I feel I’m a good candidate for VP-Int,because I’m dedicated, hard working and
experienced. In high school, I was the stu-dent council president & valedictorian ofmy school of over 2200 students. I’vebeen very involved with EngSoc since firstyear. Last term, I planned and ran afundraising event called Vince Day, andraised over $7000 for the Canadian CancerSociety. I’ve ran TalEng for the past twoyears, been class representative, volun-teered for the EWB conference, shadowday, frosh mentoring, explorations,campus day and various other events.Within my systems class, I constantly tryto increase the spirit of my classmates by
organizing class parties and spirit events. Ihope to spread the energy and enthusiasmof my classmates to all of the students inengineering. I’m a Huge and Scunt com-mittee head for Frosh Week 2003. So, asyou can see, I’m very involved within theEngineering Society. I’m very friendlyand approachable, so I’ll always be opento hearing any suggestions or criticism.I’ll make your voices heard. Remember, if you want someone dedicat-ed, hard working, and experienced, voteKarim Lallani for Vice President Internal.
Karim Lallani
VP InternalCandidate2A Systems
Although I am only in 1B, I believe thatprevious experiences that I have
obtained in a student council setting makeme an appropriate candidate for VPInternal. In high school I was the SocialDirector,w hich would be the equivalent ofthe Engineering Society’s VPI or VPX.Currently I am the class rep for the 1BCiv class (Full Tilt). My class is
extremely involved in the school despitethe fact we are in first year. I am veryactive within the community and in orga-nizing events for my class. I attend allevents run within the Faculty ofEngineering. During my first term withA-Soc I shared the Paul Harlick award.This demonstrates my ability to getinvolved n EngSoc. I am a very outgoingand positive person, and I feel that myprevious experience, my love forEngineering and dedication to this schoolwill make me an excellent candidate forthis position.
6 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
EngSoc
ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE CANDIDATE REPORTS
Vice-President Finance Candidate Report
Hi there, and welcome to my spiel.First off, for those of you who don’t
know me, I’m in 3A mechanical, and I’vebeen involved with all sorts of EngSocstuff over the past three years.
I’m running for this position because Ibelieve EngSoc relies on the strength anddependability of its VP Finance. You maythink that there’s not much to the job, butthe fact is that you need someone respon-sible, conscientious, and organized to be incharge of the EngSoc budget. The onlyincome for the budget is the $14 EngSocstudent fee. This fee hasn’t been changedin six years, and I am committed to ensur-ing that it won’t increase in the midst of allthe other rising student fees.
Why me you ask? I’m Headcom for Frosh
Week 2003, which means I‚m a currentmember of FOC. One of the responsibili-ties I hold on FOC is being in charge of theEngineering Orientation budget.Furthermore, I have 2 years experienceoperating the finances of an organizationwith an annual budget of $100,000.
But don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t onlylike sitting and managing dollar signs. Ialso have a lot of other EngSoc experi-ence. I’ve been an actor in the play twice,I’ve been in charge of class reps and P**5.This term, I co-brought you Arts Week,
which had activities such as bands playingduring the lunch hours and the Duct TapeSculpture contest. I also initiated theEngSoc Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament(check out the plaque in the EngSoc trophycase!).
Well that about wraps things up. If youwant to know more, stop me in the hallsand we can chat it up. Remember to votefor Grant Holohan for VP Finance onMarch 19th.
Grant Holohan
VP FinanceCandidate3A Mechanical
Vice-President Education Candidate Report
Hi there! My name is Emma Saask, and Iwant to be your next VP Education. I havesome very specific goals that I'd like toachieve in the position, and the experienceand dedication necessary to followthrough on them.
As I'm sure all of you have noticed, yourtuition has increased at a staggering rate.What you may not know though, is that theUniversity administration has not gatheredany data relating to the impact of theseincreases on the accessibility of education.At a recent board of governor's meeting,Provost Amit Chakra said that the outlook
was "too bleak" and that they did not wantto think about the effect of the increases onstudents. Well, I can say that I do want tothink about it, and if elected I plan to per-form a study researching the financialimpact of rising tuition on accessibility toeducation, and prove to the administrationthat they can no longer afford not to thinkabout the repercussions of their actions.
Another initiative I'd like to take on is towork with the Feds to build online coursecritique data. As you may or may notknow, Engineering has one of the mostthorough and well regarded systems forcourse critiques in the country. For anycourse in Engineering, data is publiclyavailable on the results of these critiques,so potential students can assess what pre-vious students thought of the course. AsEngineers we don't take only Engineeringcourses though, so while we have plenty ofdata for our own courses, there is little or
no information about the ComplimentaryStudies courses available. By workingwith the Feds, I believe that we can notonly bring our expertise in course critiquesto a campus wide level, but draw on amuch larger student base for critiques ofcourses outside of Engineering thatEngineers might be interested in taking.Finally, by putting this information online,I hope to make is more accessible to stu-dents, hopefully encouraging participationin the Course Critique process.
Since I have been my class' academic rep-resentative for five terms, I'm very used todefending the educational interests of myfellow students. In addition to this, whilea SuperHuge for Engineering Orientationthis past fall, I became quite adept at nego-tiating with several different branches ofthe University administration. This is askill that is essential to the VP Educationposition, since at its core the position is
defined as representing the academic inter-ests of the students. Finally, beginning inMay I will be representing Engineeringstudents as a member of the UniversitySenate, and I feel that my position as sen-ator would be extremely beneficial inbeing able to perform the duties of the VPEducation. Since the Senate is the maingoverning body of academic policy for theUniversity, I will have access to up to theminute, unfiltered information as soon as itbecomes available.
In closing, let me say that while these pro-jects are important to me, what is moreimportant is that I represent your desiresand interests. If you'd like to talk to meabout the position, my ideas, or just aboutanything, stop me in the hall, find me inPoets, or drop me an email at [email protected].
Emma Saask
VP EducationCandidate3A Mechanical
Hi! My name is Jenn Bell, and I’m in2A Chem. I’m running for VP
Education to carry on the improvementsthat Dan Robinson made during his term. Ifeel that there’s a lot the position of VP Edcan do, but it requires someone with thevision to do it.
I’m currently involved in ChemEngSoc asVP Internal, and I was one of the semi-for-mal directors this term. I’m also a class repfor Engsoc, and I constantly volunteer my
time for all the events offered throughoutthe term. To me, involvement in Engsoc isparamount to a well-rounded education.
As VP Ed, I would like to work on improv-ing communication between the societyand the departments. There are also manyother areas I feel could use more work. I’dlike to continue the trend towards placingimportant information online, such as the
old exam bank, and a creating a searchableautomated scholarships database.
Well that’s about all I have to say for now,besides of course vote Jenn for VPEducation.
Jenn Bell
VP EducationCandidate2A Chemical
Dear Waterloo Engineering,
In the immortal words of the Beatles: ‚“Your lovin' gives me a thrill, But yourlovin' don't pay my bills‚”. I am here topay the bills. I am your man for VPF.
Spirit, enthusiasm, involvement, and thecapacity for hard work are just some of thecharacteristics I possess and intend tobring to the position of VPF. My experi-ence for the role originates in my keeninterest in finance. I was my high school’sStudent Council Treasurer, and I am thecurrent EngSoc Director of Finance.
VPF is often considered a maintenancerole involving balancing the books,designing the budget, and making sure thatcheques are written and everyone is reim-bursed and happy. I promise that I willperform beyond the expected core duties
of the VP Finance, and bring new ideas tothe EngSoc Executive. There are also afew goals as VP Finance I would like tosee accomplished:
1) Increase availability of financial infor-mation by publishing it on the EngSocwebsite.
2) Create a record structure to keep trackof all EngSoc Assets for insurance purpos-es.
3) NO increase to EngSoc fees!!! With theright budget we can do anything.
Some might say that VPF is a dull job.Well duh, but I am a dork and I likemoney; especially other peoples’ money.Granted I won’t own any of this money,but I can pretend like I do.
On a more serious note, I know I havewhat it takes to do this job and do it well.Thank you for your time.
Yours in prosperity ,
Dave Johnson
David Johnson
VP FinanceCandidate2A Systems
WEEF Director Report
Weef is good. I plan to make it betterthan ever!
Since 1B I have been my class weef rep,
and this term I am doing Finances forWEEF. And since I have been acclaimed Iam your new WEEF director for next term.
I plan to raise awareness in the studentbody, of the distribution of funds thatoccurs within the faculty, and to studentteams. I would also like to aim for lowrefund rates.
Erin Young
WEEF DirectorCandidate3A Enviro-Chem
Paul Paquet1B Civil, VPI Candidate
7F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Point-Counterpoint
POINT VS. COUNTERPOINT
Was the $11 Million Lawsuit Against theUniversity the Right Move for the Feds?
Who cares if the administration runsmy bars – I just want them open so
I can drink! Screw autonomy and just cavein so we don’t irreparably damage ourrelationship with admin! Eleven milliondollars? That’s ridiculous. What’s FEDSgoing to do with all that money – with allof my money? I’m already paying 15%more tuition, is that going to jump evenhigher because of this? And how much isthis lawsuit going to cost the FEDS? I’mgetting screwed on both ends!
At least, from what I’ve seen over the pastweeks and months, these seem to be thegeneral reactions from the student popula-tion. But contrary to popular belief there issome degree of logic behind these actionsthat do justify pursuing this “aggressive”lawsuit.
Among the objectives in its Charter ofIncorporation, it is stated that theFederation of Students is charged withadministering the affairs of the membersof the corporation. Pursuant to that objec-tive, the Federation enacted policy three,“Statement of Autonomy”, initially on 24March 1996 and revised on 12 March 2000resolved that “While the Federation ofStudents welcomes the opportunity to hearadvice and discuss policies, no form of acommittee dealing with the Federation ofStudents will be permitted to exercise anycontrol over the activities of the Federationof Students.”
So, by policies enacted by a Federationcouncil representing students, theFederation is required to maintain itsautonomy in management of its ownaffairs and cannot tolerate interference.Therefore the administration’s offer tooversee management through both com-mittees involving FEDS managers andUW Bar Services, FEDS executives andUW Food Services, nor the overridingveto of UW Director of BusinessOperations can be acceptable to theFederation under policy 3.
The university proposal, which essentiallyhas not changed in the time since the firstmeeting of 28 January 2003, included astructure their lawyers believed compliedwith AGCO regulations and would allowthem to control their liability in advance ofa younger student population by removingadult decision making power from theFederation. While the Federation’s lawyerdisagrees with the administration’s legalopinion, the primary problems are the lackof movement in the alleged negotiationprocess on the side of the administrationand the continued portrayal and treatmentof the Federation as an irresponsible juve-nile body.
According to the undergraduate calendar,the mission statement of the Federationincludes fostering mutual respect in under-graduates with a vision of a strong, stable
structure to empower the student commu-nity. Furthermore, the recent publicationfrom the “Younger Students Committee”chaired by associate provost CatharineScott (http://www.studentservices.uwater-loo.ca/YoungerStudentsReport.pdf) indi-cated even sub-legal age students wouldsign residence contracts because “Havingparents sign residence contracts is contraryto the university's philosophy that eachstudent has a responsibility to act as anadult and be treated as an independent per-son.” That determination was made by thecommittee despite legal advice expecting“…that in any action against the universi-ty for injuries suffered by a student, theage of the student would be a factor, andthe court may impose a higher standard ofcare upon the university and upon thosefor whom the university is in law responsi-ble in such cases.”
By delivering demands and ultimatumsthat the administration knew theFederation could not agree to then by sub-sequently violating signed agreementswith the Federation through unilateralactions the administration hardly followsthe laurels of mutual respect nor respectsstudents as the decision-making adults itclaims they must be. So if any Federation-administration relationship has been orwill continue to be damaged by this issueit was the administration who broke thetrust.
In those circumstances the Federation canhardly be blamed for believing the opera-tion of their establishments for students,by students will not be curtailed under anadministration that is hypocritical towardsits treatment of students.
With respect to the lawsuit itself, theFederation and the administration hadreached an impasse. Administration hadwaited a month ignoring multiple dead-lines to arrive at a proposal not structural-ly different from the original and had notpresented a solution that showed under-standing of the Federation’s concerns. TheFederation had presented an arrangementwhere it would both allow administrationto alleviate significant legal liability whileallowing them to regularly monitor anddiscuss Federation operations at the estab-lishments. As in the 1976 and 1984 con-tracts, if violations were found by theadministration’s representative they wouldbe brought to the on-duty manager forimmediate correction.
The immobility of either party and the lackof respect for the Federation on adminis-tration’s part during proceedings to daterequire deadlock-breaking, last-resortmeasures that force good-faith negotiationor at least mediation. The threat of the law-suit should be enough for the Board ofGovernors to require administration towork to actually resolve the issue insteadof imposing a solution. That is, to negoti-ate in an air of mutual respect that canavert the brunt of the litigation.
The hope of the litigation is that a settle-ment can be reached that actually address-es the concerns of both sides in a mannerboth can accept to avoid the costs that nei-ther party can afford. The administration
cannot cover the costs of either the insur-ance premium increases an award to theFederation would cost, especially if theyare found negligent, while the Federationfor the sake of its members cannot allowthat expense to occur. After all, the firstpart of the Federation’s mission statement
is “To foster undergraduates' pursuit ofhigher learning, personal growth and anenhanced quality of student life” – a pur-suit made more difficult with each impasseand with each delay. A lawsuit can indeedbe the beginning of the end in more waysthan the fatalistic one.
The primary roles of the Federation ofStudents are to represent student opin-
ion to the school and media and to manageservices that benefit the students of UW.The $11 million lawsuit filed on March4th accomplishes neither. There are twoprimary reasons why this is the case – themoney, and the bars.
The amount of money involved is a seri-ous issue in the minds of UW students.Twenty minutes after news of the lawsuitwas published on uwstudent.org, a postwas made by Lino Demasi neatly summa-rizing the problem.
“Where does FEDS gettheir money from? Me.Where does theUniversity get theirmoney from? Me. IfFEDS wins, who is goingto end up paying for this$11 million? Me. IfFEDS doesn't win, who isgoing to end up paying forall the legal fees that are piling up on bothsides? Me.” The point being, thatalthough the Federation of Students is try-ing to force the university administrationback to the bargaining table while trying toillustrate the severity of the problem, theyare doing it at great cost to the students.
It has been noted that the Feds’ probableunderlying goal is to reach a settlement,that there is no genuine desire to see thelawsuit through. Should the lawsuit be set-tled, the University’s legal fees will still bebilled to the students. Should the Fedswin, the university will have to make upthe cost – likely through tuition or feeincreases. Nevertheless, in both scenariosthe student body will have to help recuper-ate the costs of a legal encounter.
Additionally, it is increasingly unlikelythat the Federation of Students will be vic-torious in such a legal battle, meaning theexpenditures will have been for naught.What the Feds seem to not see, is that theUniversity can afford to out-wait the stu-dents in this matter as they are in a betterposition to afford a long legal battle. Notonly do the students have fewer financialresources, but the student turn-over rate(both in terms of elected representativesand voting body) is much higher than thatof the administration.
It is entirely too likely that the administra-tion will simply wait for the Feds to giveup and accept any agreement the universi-
ty proposes – thereby reaffirming the stu-dents’ position as juvenile and incompe-tent.
The second reason why the lawsuit wasinappropriate and far from the best moveis that most students would rather havetheir social establishments in operationthan in taking umbrage to yet anotherslight by the administration. TheUniversity of Waterloo is known for treat-ing their students as clueless minors – alawsuit will not change this fact; UW stu-dents understand that.
To most students, the issue of the momentisn’t who runs the Bomb Shelter or FedHall or whether the Feds can profit from it,rather the issue is whether these establish-ments are open or not. To the average UWstudent, Feds would be better serving itsrole by going back to the negotiation table
and by getting thosebars open.
The Federation ofStudents accuses theadministration of notbeing willing to nego-tiate, while at thesame time makingoutrageous demandsof the same adminis-trators. The Feds is
accusing the University of Waterloo ofillegally contracting out the sale of liquor,while trying to force them back into thatsame agreement. This is not a constructiveway for the Feds to reach a solution.
A more preferable route would have beento agree to the interim management theUniversity proposed, while simultaneous-ly pursuing the option of an independentor joint liquor license. This method wouldhave resulted in a more amicable workingrelationship between the students and uni-versity, would have avoided any interrup-tion in Bomb Shelter or Fed Hall services,and would have given the Feds more timeto determine whether or not they actuallyhad a sound legal position.
As it is, it seems they have been misguid-ed into an untenable position that willplease few, frustrate many, and cost every-one a great sum of money.
Joseph Fung
3N Computer
Jeff Henry
3N Computer
Editor’s Note: Point vs. Counterpoint isintended as a forum for objective andthought provoking debate on variousissues. The views and opinions expressedhere do not necessarily reflect those ofthe author(s), the Iron Warrior, or theEngineering Society.
“...the University canafford to out-wait thestudents in this matteras they are in a better
position to afford along legal battle.”
8 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Columns
Pies, Pies and more Pies. As most ofyou may have witnessed, National PI
in the Face week went on last week, and itwas a huge success! In total, we were ableto raise over $1400 for the United Way!One of the charity directors got the ideafrom observing this city wide event, whileon coop last term in Calgary, so we decid-ed to give it a shot in Engineering here atUW.
Initially we decided to run the event forthree days, from Wednesday to Friday, butas the week came to an end, the PI orderswere snowballing in like crazy, and weslowly began having dozens of orders forthe next week!
For those of you who didn’t quite catch on
to what it was all about, the basic idea wasthat you could buy a PI for anyone in engi-neering, fellow classmates, TA’s, or evenyour profs, for $5. Then this person wouldbe approached with the PI, and given threeoptions:
1) Take the PI in the Face, 2) Redirect it toanother poor victim for $10, or 3) Keep itfor $10. (Of course, participation wasoptional, but since it was for the UnitedWay, we had a lot of people supporting thisevent.)
Notable PI-Ings…
The longest lasting Pie (There was actu-ally a tie between two pies):One which was bought by Dave Clegg, toTania Bortolon, delivered during anEngsoc meeting, which was redirectedabout 7 times, before good old Davedecided to take one for the team!
One which was bought for a Chem EngProf, from the 3B Chem class, which wasredirected among the Chem Profs alsoabout 7 times, before it finally ended up inthe smiling face of Professor Fowler.
The Most Pies taken by one Person atonce:This goes to E&CE Professor Paul Ward,who was sent 5 pies from one of his under-grad classes, and took all 5 in the face!
Largest Group PI-ing:The devious gentleman in the 2A systemsclass decided to buy 13 pies for 13 girls inthe class. They also threatened that foreach PI we redirected back at them, they’dredirect it back, and send another two backto that girl. In the end, 13 girls (includingProfessor Rohlf) were pied, six of whichwere PI ed at the same time… it was quitea sight!
Most Money Raised from a PI:
One E&CE class bought a pie forProfessor Gorbet, who agreed to take thePI if his class could raise $150. In the end,they were able to raise $203, and Prof.Gorbet took the PI!
Most Money Bid to PI a Person:During the extensive PI-ing of ProfessorGorbet, Dave Clegg bid $25 to “deliver”the PI. Dave should probably also get thedistinction for most money donated by asingle person, since he must have hadabout 10 pies directed to him at one pointor another, 4 of which he took, and manymore which he redirected several times.Thanks for the donations Dave!
Thanks a lot to all of our volunteers whohelped out with National PI in the faceweek, and to all those who were such agood sport about being Pied!
Preya Mistry2A Systems Design
PI-lights of the Week
Each year, hundreds of high school stu-dents are lured to the departments of ECSEby our shiny brochures detailing the excit-ing job opportunities that await them herein the middle of nowhere: FIFA tester atElectronic Arts, C# monkey at Micro$oft,Linux hacker at IBM, lunchroom supervi-sor at Government of Canada, etc.
Then, the co-op job postings come out onthe still dreadfully user-unfriendlypsAccess system, and a few quick taps ontheir Palm handhelds reveal a less thanideal mapping function of jobs to students.
But they have excuses. They are only intheir first year of a five-year long program.Many of them never had a job outside thefast food or discount retailing industries. Agood number of them never ever had a jobat all. All their knowledge of the workingworld comes from their parents andDilbert comics.
It becomes a little more difficult to swal-low when the student is in his 3A or 3Bterm. There, justifiably, is a sense of arro-gance among upper year students. Afterall, it’s no easy task to withstand monoto-nic lectures and suicidal midterm examsfor three straight years.
Everyone, in the back of their heads, hasthis picture of an ideal job. Much like anideal mate, but perhaps a little more realis-tic by comparison. And once you reach
your third or fourth work term, you start tothink that you’ve suffered through enoughto deserve that ideal job.
Nothing is a greater let down than beingrejected for a job that you think youdeserve. Then you start to swear at theemployers for being dimwits. “Bush-like”is the first thing that comes to mind. That’sthe first stage of coping with defeat. Thesecond stage is start being helplessly hope-ful. “Maybe there was a computer glitch.”“Maybe the employer filed the wrongpapers / typed in the wrong ID.” After acouple of days, reality starts to sink in.Maybe you really didn’t deserve that job.The last stage is trying to find excuses foryourself. “That job probably sucked any-way.” “The company is too far / too small/ too big / too poor / too Enron-like.”
That may help you feel better, but it stilldoesn’t help you get a job.
The reality is that the world economy isnot doing very well right now. With thelooming war on Iraq, and a Republicanworld leader who, after three years on thejob, still needs to assert his own sanity tothe world once in a while, this economymight still be a few time periods awayfrom repeating the irrational nineties. Butthat doesn’t help to explain the decliningnumber of jobs for UW students.
The fact is that the Canadian economy isdoing very well. It is leading the G7 ingrowth. Inflationary pressure forced theBank of Canada to raise interest rates inorder to – get this – cool the economydown. The unemployment rate is nowrivalling the American rate, the first timein many years.
Furthermore, ECSE students have no rea-
son to blame the slowdown in the ITindustry for their job-searching troubles,either. Perennial technology giants likeMicrosoft, ATI, IBM, Sybase, just to namea few, continue to prosper in this difficultglobal economic climate. If anything, therationalization of the technology industryis positive for us. The bubble in the 1990screated jobs that were not supposed to bethere in the first place. It was a time of eco-nomic waste. Billions of dollars weredestroyed on dotcom start-ups who had noideas except to follow the herd. But themoney is not the worst part; it’s the wasteof human resources. People who wereworking in “bubble positions” were sim-ply wasting their time writing code for noapparent purpose. Anyone on the streetwho knew how to program an infinite loopin C was given a job with outrageous com-pensations that turned out to be worthlessanyway. That necessarily diminished thevalue of truly competent and adequatelytraining professionals, including UW co-op students. Although we were given jobs,that didn’t mean we were particularlymore competent than the guys in the col-leges down the street. Rather, it merelyimplied that we were able to help compa-nies burn through venture capital morequickly. Honestly, how realistic is a 98%employment rate for a group as large asour Faculty of Engineering anyway?
Now is a different story. Employers havebecome more careful in their selection ofpotential employees, because budgets aretighter than ever before. Not that such anextreme tightening is necessary, but atleast they are choosing to err on the side ofcaution for a change. That line on yourresume that reads “Waterloo HonoursB.A.Sc.” is no longer a ticket to arrangedemployment. It has never really been one.It just has become much less likely to be
one now. Increasingly, you actually needskills that can set yourself apart from theguy next to you, who sleeps through all thelectures and yet manages to receive moreoffers than you had cancelled postings.
So, what can you do to set yourself apart?
A common advice is to “soup up” yourresume. Although it is absolutely certainthat an aesthetically pleasing resume willmake employers notice you, it is stillimportant to have a resume that has sub-stance. And substance is difficult to “soupup”. Facts can only be stretched so farbefore they become lies. And if a paperfull of lies does not get you to questionyour own ethics, you don’t deserve to be inengineering.
A better solution is to find things that youare strong at and enjoy doing. Too manypeople, when they are turned down bytheir ideal job, start to be careless aboutthe jobs that they pick to apply to. Evenworse, many people who fail to secure ajob after the initial phase become desper-ate, and start stuffing many dozens ofapplications indiscriminately into thebeige application boxes, hoping to play thelaw of probability like they do in casinos.
It has to be kept in mind that co-op is notmeant to be place where you find things todo between school terms. Rather, co-op isa process that helps you acquire the skillsyou need for your eventual integration intothe real world. This may be done by beingemployed for four months. However, thatis not the only option. Several others exist,and they will hopefully be discussed in thenext issue.
To be continued…
About Co-Operative Education - Part I
Jay Liu
3A Computer
From Left to Right: Prof. Gorbet,Prof. Savage, Prof. Ward, Karim.
9F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
EngSoc
Although nobody is quite sure exactlywhat Systems Design (SYDE)
Engineering is, I can tell you that SYDEstudents are very enthusiastic and spirited.The 2A systems class (SYaniDE) has beenone of the most active classes within theEngineering Faculty since first year.Whenever EngSoc holds an event, thereare always a handful of SYaniDE studentsin attendance. For fundraising events,SYaniDE is usually always the topfundraiser. Last term, we organized VinceDay, where we raised over $7000 for theCanadian Cancer Society. This term, wewon the penny drive, and raised a lot ofmoney for pie in the face day. The guys inour class contributed money to see 13 girlspied. It was definitely a memory that willnever be forgotten.
Recently, the class set new records forclass spirit. In light of the end ofmidterms, our class decided to have a hugeclass party at POETS and attempt anAndre the Giant. With some of our biggestdrinkers recovering from a party the nightbefore, we thought it would impossible todrink 120 beers. However, 90% of theclass showed up at POETS on Thursdaydetermined to conquer the challenge. Weeven had a couple of our systems profes-sors cheering us on. We drank 120 beersin less than 75 minutes setting a newrecord in POETS. After beating therecord, we went to our Java class verybuzzed. Almost everyone in the class hadto go to the washroom a couple of timesduring the class. At the end of the class,we decided to attempt beating the all-timerecord of 244 beers drank by one class inone day. So, as a class, we went back toPOETS, and drank 219 beers to clean outthe POETS fridge. Unfortunately, wecould not beat the record, because we fin-ished all of the beer; however, we’ll beatthe record soon. Go SYaniDE go!
Karim Lallani
2A Systems
SYaniDE Spirit
On Thursday February 6th, theEngineering Computer User Support
Centre (ECUSC) initiated a forum discus-sion to get some feedbacks form the stu-dents on the current services, and whatchanges and improvements would bedesirable and expected in the future. Thegoal of the discussion was to brainstormon ideas that would make the computingenvironment at Waterloo as enjoyable aspossible.
Indeed, even though the ECUSC office isoften crowded with students with comput-er problems, they want to get more (con-structive) feedback abouttheir current initiativessuch as Willie, the newwireless network which isaccessible almost every-where in Engineering.
There was a low atten-dance at this first forum,but nevertheless very good discussionsemerged. I was able to better understandthe relationship between EngineeringComputing and IST, its higher authority. Ialso got more information on the last e-mail rejection issue with the Yahoo Groups
(which should not happen anymore, hope-fully), the whole privacy issue of each e-mail accounts (and consequently why wecannot have automatic class e-mail lists),
and I even learnedabout the story behindthe ex-Pulley Lab
Over the years, I havebeen able to observeand appreciate a lot ofthe ECUSC work,such as upgrading the
systems, getting more computer labs withnice working desks and comfortable furni-ture, opening the accessibility to myaccount when off-campus through themywaterloo portal and even when oncoop!
This first forum was meant to be a launch-ing platform to other more detailed discus-sion session about topics such as thewireless network, computers and softwareavailability (e.g. Linux, usage of UWresources off-campus, new softwarerequired), the Nexus change-over, ECUSCoffice hours... In the near future, individualforums on these specific topics will behappening, stay posted to see when aforum interesting you will be happening. Ialso suggest taking a walk and go find outwho is Paul McKrone, the man behind theautomatic e-mail rejection service. I waspersonally surprised to see how nice thepeople from ECUSC really are and howhard they work for the students.
ESUSC Forum
Sandra Lê
4B Systems “I was personally sur-prised to see how nice
the people fromECUSC really are...”
1 0 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
EngSoc
Good friends, good food and goodmusic. It’s the recipe for the perfect
semi-formal, and this term, the semi-for-mal directors managed to get the mix justright. With all that is going on this term,many decided to forgo this social event;well it was your loss if you missed it.
The evening started with soft jazz playingin the background and plenty of fingerfood to partake in, the perfect setting tocatch up with friends outside the confinesof our concrete classrooms. But at somepoint, and I can’t pin point exactly when,this intimate, calm gathering of reservedadults turned into a full out, no holdsbarred party. The DJ was excellent. Withhis diverse selection in music, no one hadan excuse not to dance, and I don’t thinkanyone can say that they didn’t at somepoint. However, we didn’t know that hewas going to be administering a sobrietytest half way through the evening. As faras I am concerned, all the individuals pre-
sent performed the requested tasks, name-ly “YMCA” and “The Macarena”, perfect-ly, with style and grace. We werereminded of our high school days with alittle AC/DC and Guns n’ Roses. Some ofus were reminded of our hometown withthe “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”. The DJ evengave those cute and snuggly couples anopportunity to get close and have a roman-tic moment with some slower selections.
At ideal moment in the evening, we wereinvited to enjoy some hot hors douvers. Iknow the timing was right by the crowdthat flocked to the table as the food wasbrought out. Ummmm….pot stickers….A great array of sweets followed and werealso very well received.
Everyone who attended received a tealight in a nice glass candleholder, dressedup with ribbon. Just the right thing to takehome to remember the evening by. Frombeginning to end, the evening was a suc-cess and many thanks and congratulationgo out the directors, Jenn Bell, MattStevens and Naoreen Hasan and the manyvolunteers who made the night possible.
Christine McCullough2A Chemical
Fire and Ice: The EngSoc Winter 2003 Semi-Formal
1 1F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
EngSoc
The middle of term party was like abatch of banana muffins – without
chocolate chips.
The biggest news is that the muffinsweren’t burnt. With the “Bars Situation”,as our campus politicians have dubbed it,the engineering society was initially con-cerned about alcohol-related events in thelounge this term. However, when askedabout how the conflict affects the opera-tion of POETS, one of the managers com-mented that it really hasn’t. There was abit more security at BOT, but they have
continued to follow the same proceduresas before. Among other things, the man-agers make sure that they don’t go overcapacity, have food available and keeptrack of non UW engineering students atthe party.
The party followed the standard recipe:There weren’t any chocolate chips. Themiddle of term party is the first term partywhere newly-ringed engineering studentsare allowed upstairs in POETS to touchthe TOOL. This usually adds someflavour to the whole event. Last year atthis time there was a big controversybecause the TOOL didn’t come to MOT.This year, the TOOL showed up and thegrads hardly blinked. One non-engineer-ing society type explained that the gradshad their fill of TOOL touching at IRS,just over a week earlier.
Janna Hickson
4B Systems
The Muffinrific Middle of Term Pub
1 2 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Arts and Enertainment
Go Go Comics! Ryan BayneMutant Dog Creator
Hiu Lam Yau3B Mechanical
There are 4 Categories:-Poetry-Photography-Drawings/Paintings-Digital Artwork.
Prizes will be given to the winner in eachcategory.
Get submissions in early!
Deadline for submissions is March 21.
People can submit art either to Betty inthe orifice or in the Arts mailbox in the orifice. Digital Art can be submit-ted electronically (if it's small enough) to bsoc_arts@engmail.
I think that's it now.
ArtsContest!
Grant Holohan and Dallas CardArts Directors
The Spirit RoomMichelle BranchWarner Brothers
Let GoAvril LavigneArista
There has been a surge of new, young,and talented female artists on the com-
mercial music scene for the past year.Some of the biggest names to date areMichelle Branch, Avril Lavigne, NoahJones, and Vanessa Carlton, the formertwo being the discussion subjects of thisarticle.
Michelle Branch started playing guitarwhen she was 14 years old, and that’swhen her interest in singing grew beyondbeing a favourite pastime. The nineteenyear old who is “Dutch-Indonesian and
French on her mother's side and Irish onher father’s” from Arizona released a verysuccessful CD album called “The SpiritRoom”, with the Top 20 singles“Everywhere” and “All you wanted”. AvrilLavigne, as many of you may know, is anexciting young star from small Ontariotown Napanee, who started “wowing peo-ple with her voice and character at aroundage 2”. She’s a 1984 product. Her album,“Let Go”, gainedp r o m i n e n c et h r o u g h“Complicated” andthe infamous“Sk8er boi”.
Judging by thecover, the two CDshave very notice-able similarities.Both are coveredby dim and dead-serious shots of theartists. You’ll instantly understand whythese artists must have talents, since theycould not have come so far just relying ontheir looks alone. The back covers are sim-ilar as well, with the artists posing next totheir guitars.
Inside the cases, some similarities contin-
ue. Both disks contain very mellow tunes.The Spirit Room contains the highly-acclaimed inflective song “Goodbye toyou”, while Let Go boasts an equally well-received “I’m with you”, which has beencarefully distributed to radio stations in thepast month.
While most of the tunes follow an upbeattempo, they set themselves apart from tra-
ditional pop withsoulful voicesthat somehow letyour mind wan-der freely awayfrom the stress ofhomework tosomewhere theartists want youto be. The tone ofthe music man-ages to be posi-
tive while creating a uniquely inflectiveenvironment. The lyrics are excellent.There are great verses in virtually everysong, thus too numerous to reproduce inthis article. The songs are easy to listen to,and the lyrics are easy to follow. Themusic is memorable, so be careful to con-trol your humming during the MSci lec-tures.
In general, the two CDs are highly recom-mended. Once you get your hands onthem, you are guaranteed to want to playthem over and over again in your gazillionspeaker car stereo on those long weekendtrips back to Richmond Hill for supper.Nevertheless, there are a few negatives.First of all, The CDs contain 11 and 13songs each, a little few for the prices atwhich they are charged. Out of them,“Sweet Misery” of The Spirit Room droveme insane when the lyrics repeated the line“Sweet misery you caused me” for thethirtieth time. And “Sk8ter boi” is more ofan anomaly on the “Let go” CD rather thanthe norm. So if you like that type of “out ofthe shell” music, there is very little else onthat CD to satisfy you. The rap songs dorhyme, although some words are intention-ally stretched longer than they should’vebeen. Lavigne is not Eminem. For better orfor worse.
Although neither artists have anything toshow for after the Grammy’s, which wasswept by the more mature Noah Jones,these two CDs prove that the quality ofyoung artists is still very respectable intoday’s music business.
Girls with Talent
Jay Liu
3A Computer
1 3F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Arts & Entertainment
As part of the ongoing struggle to con-vince the rest of the Waterloo campus
that engineers are not just about math andscience, the first ever Engineering ArtsWeek was held from February 24th to28th. For five solid days, we invited engi-neers to imagine what it's like on the otherside of campus and pretend they were art-sies.
Our reputation for surpassing expectationsin that area is now well established, fromevents such as TalEng and the EngineeringPlay (March 13th to 15th). However, ArtsWeek was not so much about demonstrat-ing our talent, as it was encouraging engi-neers to express their creativity. The act ofcreation is a wonderful experience, andwhile there is a tremendous amount of cre-ativity and innovation in most engineeringwork, but there's a real difference betweendesigning a bridge and sticking your fin-gers into some paint.
Monday kicked off Arts week with fingerpainting. Countless people stopped by to
add their own personal touch to a bannerwhich remained on display for the rest ofthe week. The spirit continued on Tuesdaywith 10 teams competing to create the bestduct tape sculpture. We were all astoundedby what people were able to make from anewspaper and a roll of duct tape.
On Wednesday, people got out in the cold,and put their skill to creating snow sculp-tures for everyone's enjoyment. The poet-ry readings that were planned forThursday unfortunately never got orga-nized, but many people expressed interestand maybe we'll hear some at TalEng. Assome consolation, throughout the week wehad a wonderful series of musicians pro-viding entertainment to audiences in CPHfoyer. We all just relaxed on the final dayof Arts Week, beacause, as everyoneknows, artsies don't have classes onFridays.
Many thanks to everyone who came out topaint, perform, create or just to enjoy thecreativity of others. The enthusiasm weobserved throughout the week is a strongindication that the tradition of Arts Weekwill continue.
Making Artsies out ofEngineers
Dallas Card3B Systems Design
Arts Week: Left to right, up to down: 1) Duct tape and newspaper, 2) Making tape... 3) Fresh entertainment with Guitars, 4) Hey, this is how it works!, 5) It looks like a lamp,sorta..., 6) The amazing walking duct tape person!
1 4 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Arts and Entertainment
Well now. This article will be a plea-sure to write. You see, I love to
cook. Not only that, I love to invent newrecipes and then tell everyone about them.There is one recipe that will stay mine for-ever. To experience it, you must becomemy friend or be my family.
Now, to get down to business. Cookingfor oneself is not as arduous and trauma-tizing as one may think. A good, tasty,healthy meal can be prepared in a shortamount of time. And a good meal doesn’thave to cost enough to blow your budget.
When preparing meals, there are a fewrules to keep in mind. Simplicity is one.There’s no use throwing lots of strangeingredients and spices into a meal just tosee what it will be like. Unless you’re atyour parents’ house or your friend’s place,that is. No use risking your own food sup-plies now is there? And simple is cheaper,because you don’t need to buy (or pre-serve) as much food.
Rule two is to buy things only when
they’re in season and avoid luxuries. Sure,a t-bone steak tastes really good whendone on the barbecue, but steak is expen-sive. Save that for when your parents takeyou out to a fancy restaurant, like the Keg.In the summer, corn-on-the-cob is plenti-ful. Anywhere outside the borders ofurbanization (and sometimes within) youcan find fresh corn stands with very rea-sonable prices. Do not buy fresh corn inthe winter!!! It will cost at least threetimes as much as summer corn. Buy lotsin the summer and thensave it in the freezer ifyou must, but don’t buywinter corn.
Accessorize your dishes.You don’t need to havebland Kraft Dinner allthe time. Add some veg-gies, perhaps some peasor carrots or mush-rooms. Make it like apizza. Toss somesausage in there, or some bacon (if that’snot out of your price range, either), or veg-etables. Spices are a good additive tofood, as well. A twist of lemon can turnyour salad into something different andmore palatable. Curry is one of myfavourites. It goes on eggs, pasta, pizza,chili, and lots of other stuff (opportunity-permitting).
Here are a few tips to staying healthythrough food. Don’t eat fast food. Greasein moderation won’t hurt you, but a mealthat’s at least half grease will certainlyclog some arteries. Keep your diet in bal-ance. Meat is all well and good (especial-ly for those carnivorous men out there;girls, you know who I’m talking about),but meat by itself ain’t so great. Add thoseforgotten veggies. There are lots out thereto choose from. Entire walls of supermar-kets are taken up just for veggies. Then
there’s the fruits. Juicy,sweet fruit. Again, thechoices are many.Apples, bananas, andoranges are the threebasics. Berries, melons,and all the other miscel-laneous fruits also tastegreat. There’s nothinglike juicy cantaloupe inthe morning, or straw-berries and bananas oncereal.
Grains are essential, too, but don’t gooverboard. Sure toast is easy to make, butit tastes much better with jam or honey orsomething else on it (even a little butter).Pastas of all kinds are available, easy tomake and easy to serve. Heat some sauce,grate some cheese, or just dash on somespices! A great treat for a pasta-lover likeme. The quickest recipe I’ve got for pasta
I have is this; cook some pasta, add a littlebutter to prevent sticking, then add curryand garlic until you have enough to meetyour desires. As simple as that.
A few wonderful, nutritious, and easydishes are the following; chicken caesarsalad, spaghetti with tomato sauce, a sand-wich (don’t forget lettuce and/or toma-toes). I like to stick to what I know, so mypersonal list is not so long. But I’m surethat all you intelligent readers can think ofstuff to whip up to meet your dinner-timecravings.
Cooking for yourself isn’t so hard. Justmaintain the balance (oh, I forgot all aboutdairy!) and you’ll do fine. And if you’re afew minutes late to lecture, at least you’llhave had a good home-cooked meal.Where do you think chefs learned how tocook, anyway? Certainly not in class.
A word for the future. When you canafford to waste a few supplies with anunsuccessful attempt at a meal, then becreative! Add those crazy things together!And if you make a good meal, you canname it after yourself and sell it to some-one. Or be like me and just keep it foryourself. Some things are better to be trea-sured, like a fine bottle of wine.
Cooking for Students
John Olaveson
1B Civil
AvalancheMatthew GoodUniversal
Matthew Good has a new band… well,a new temporary group of musi-
cians. There’s no fixed band members, asfar as anyone I talk to knows. But thesound is striking and the music is still asgood as before.
The first single,“Weapon,” wasreleased monthsbefore the CDwas in stores. Itwas a hit from thestart. There’spower within thesong. MatthewGood has adopteda new attitude;he’s much lesscynical anddepressed than hewas before. In allof the songs thisattitude comes through.
Matt Good maintains parts of his old opin-ions. For example, “Twenty-First CenturyLiving” continues the analysis of societybegun in Beautiful Midnight’s “TheFuture Is X-Rated.” The song takes a fast-food attitude towards big issues. How doyou super-size ambition, or the govern-ment? “Super-sizing life” is becoming a
big demand in society, and Matt Good isfighting that tendency.
Matt Good’s first true love song is foundon this album. “Song for the Girl” showspart of Matt Good’s new non-depressedemotional state. The song is not even thetypical love song. It doesn’t draw on anyclichés, nor does it follow the typical form.It expresses the balance that love can bringto a life. The song is a great turnaroundfor Matt and his former dark image.
The liner notes for this album contribute tothe beauty of the album. The paper is ofvery high quality (this quality may help tojustify the excessive cost of CDs) and has
scenes from the videofor “Weapon.” Alsoincluded are semi-transparent insertsthat are not found inother CDs and “hid-den” messages per-meate the notes. Inall, the notes con-tribute to the unique-ness of the Matt Goodsound and image.
Released last Tuesdaythe 4th of April,Avalanche is expectedto be a successfulalbum for MatthewGood. This CD will
show all fans of Matt Good that greatmusic will still be produced by this talent-ed musician, old band or no. The unchar-acteristic cheerful sound is a welcomeaddition to Matt Good’s music. The bigquestion now is when will the next albumbe ready for release.
John Olaveson
1B Civil
The New Matthew Good
“You don’t need tohave bland Kraft
Dinner all the time.”
Everyone who was ever a kid felt a losslast week. As if losing Mr. Dressup a
few years ago wasn't enough, we nowhave to deal with a fellow childhood icon,Mr. Rogers.
The man who was well known for histrademark cardigan and sneakers died lastweek at his home inPittsburgh.
Few things remind meof childhood as much asMr. Rogers does. Iremember a number ofthings that I confusingas a child, like how dotake your outdoor shoesoff when you walkinside and put on somespecial pair of "indoorsneakers." I never quite understood whyhe didn't just walk around in slippers orsocks. The second pair of shoes just nevermade sense to me.
The cardigan was a whole other issue.Sure you wear a sweater if you're cold, butwho wears a sweater in the house at alltimes? For a 5 year old ankle-biter likemyself who used to wear t-shirts even inthe winter much to the dismay of mymother and grandmother, this guy whoseemed to always be cold was an oddity.
Then there were his fish. He had the mostbeautiful aquarium I had ever seen (havingnever at that point in my life ever visited areal aquarium or had any friends with nice
fish tanks). The fish seemed to have a realpersonality on that show. I guess theywere just like any other fish, just swim-ming, but my memory seems to recall fishwith some, almost dog-like, personality.Fish who, like all the children that tuned into the program, would get excited at theirown time with the main man himself.
Every generation complains about how thenext generation doesn't have it as rough;how kids nowadays are soft because theydon't have to go through the hardships we
went though. I think thegeneration of kids thatare just about to entertheir TV watchingstages is one generationthat does not have iteasier, for a generationwithout Mr. Rogers orMr. Dressup is destinedto be a generation lost,or at least more lost atTV time than we were.
Illan Kramer3B Electrical
The Legacy of Mr.Dressup
“Co-op represents theworld which you wantto control. It is a mani-
festation of presentcivilization’s rules and
values...”
Everybody knows that money does notbring happiness, but also that happi-
ness is very difficult (almost not possible)without money. It recently came to myattention that the same thing might be truefor marks at school too: it is very difficultto be happy with poor marks on midtermsand exams or a failure, but obtaining highmarks in academics doesn’t necessarilybring happiness because of the sacrificesthat had to be done to deserve the highmarks.
Failure has a very negative meaning asso-ciated to it, and everybody knows that it isnot fun to have poor marks because thesociety values excellency. If you get poormarks, it means that you probably didn’tdo the exercise right and/or didn’t under-stand the material. There exists certainlymany other people who did better, andhaving poor marks in an evaluation doesnot make you stick out of a group posi-tively.
On the other hand, what will high markswill get you? Many academic rewardssuch as an unquestionable open door tograduate studies, to excellency scholar-ships and to undergraduate research assist-antship positions. Also, you can obtain thepride to figure on the Dean’s list, and theprivilege to be invited to his term-dinner.All the honours usually go to the top stu-dents, and having good marks is a goodway to work up the list.
I agree, these are very rewarding and aredefinitely worth working hard for. But onemust also realise that they are alsoreserved to an elite of very smart and tal-ented students. But what is the trade-offbetween very good marks and decentmarks? I believe it is often happiness. Atthe end of the day, marks do matter, but Idon’t think it is all what will make a dif-ference between two candidates postulat-ing for the same job. In my opinion,creativity, open mind, self-confidence andpersonal experience are much more valu-able assets than only academic excellency.
And what kind of trade-offs am I talkingabout? Actions on a more qualitative levelsuch as personal satisfaction, good inter-personal relationships and life experience.
I think it si very important to feel good inwhat we are doing, a positive feeling ofself-accomplishment, and I agree, manypeople find it in good marks. But I oftensee my friends, sadly, sacrificing valuabletime with friends and occasions to developthemselves by creating a void aroundthem, too busy studying and for striving toget good marks rather than paying atten-tion to the community they live in. Oftenalso, they don’t even get back in the grad-ing all the efforts they put in, and this isvery disappointing and frustrating.
Most of us came to Waterloo with arésumé filled with extra-curricular activi-ties and social achievements. Are we stilldoing all these things that were passionat-ing us before? Most of the time, the effortsare concentrated on the studies, and activ-ities such as volunteering, playing sports,participating in events or just chilling withfriends are put aside for the benefit of a
few percents on a transcript. What if theseactivities are what make us really developour personality and make us feel reallyhappy, doesn’t the quest for high marksthen kill this happiness? Of course, it canbe replaced temporarily by the pride ofreaching the top 10 in an exam or a course,but I don’t believe it can last as long asnew friendships, discovery of the world orjust the simple happiness of having a lifeoutside of the school environment.
Of course, as an average student, I try tostay in the middle, enjoying myself at uni-versity (everybody says that these under-graduate years are the best of our life!)while working hard to deserve the marksthat will get me where I want to go andfeel proud of myself without any guilt ofmissing out on anything. And I know, thisis what makes me happy.
1 5F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Opinion/Your Campus
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 198:30 - MIDNIGHT
LOOSE CHANGE LOUIE'S(Louie's is located on University Avenue between Phillip & Lester)
If you're looking for a great time, TalEng is the place to be on March 19. If you come,you'll see the BEST talent in Engineering including singing, instrumental ensembles, hiphop stepping, stand up comedy, and lots more. There's even a special extremely talent-ed guest that will hopefully be a top candidate for the upcoming hit show Canadian Idol.TALENG is a show you definitely don't want to miss.
There will be lots of giveaways during the show, as well as random prizes. And theresults from the EngSoc Exec nominations will be announced!!
This will be an ALL AGES event, so you can still come if you're under 19 (just be pre-pared to get big 'X's on your hands). Be sure to bring your ID if you want to avoid get-ting 'X's on your hands.
Start spreading the word to all of your friends.
If you have any questions, e-mail Karim ([email protected])
Come To Taleng
Friday March the 21st the fourth install-ment in the eletronic music series,
ElectrOnica Near the MC, is bringinghardcore tunes to the SLC. What betterway to celebrate the first day of springthan dancing your pants off to the best inhouse, trance, drum and bass, breaks,hardcore and techno?
::INFO::
Time: 4:00 pm – 3:00 amLocation: SLC::MPR ( student life center,multipurpose room)Cost: FREEDj’s: 15
Turntables: 4Mixers: 2Watts: 4000
ElectOnica is a unique campus eventwhere Dj’s and live performers of elec-tronic music from various University fac-ulties show off their talent to fans of thegenre. This term, 15 performers will betearing it up on a selection from 4 turnta-bles, 2 mixers and a variety of synthmachines and keyboards. A 4000 wattsound system with dual 18" subs and pow-erful tops will be in effect along side somevery cool lighting. You can be sure themusic will be sweet and the times will begood and the decor will be funky so comeand enjoy. As usual it is free and all arewelcome to attend, or just drop by tocheck it out. Want more ? Check outwww.electronicainthemc.org .
So You Like It Hard?
Two charity concerts. Henry the first oneis the one I'm holding at the Grad House. Both concerts all proceedsgoing to the food bank.
Concert 1
Thursday Mar 27 2003At the Grad HouseShow up before 10:00By Donation to the Food Bank
Headlining are The SourKeys
Garage Rock band out of Waterloo. Theband formed in 2001 and has alreadygained a strong following. If you like TheStrokes and the White Stripes you willdefinately love these guys. More info canbe found at"h t tp : / /www25.br inks te r.com/ the-sourkeys/" and demo songs can be down-loaded at"http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/392/the_sour_keys.html" .
The opening band is yet to be determinedbut don't be suprised if you see The Bandfrom Planet X, Shift!, or Sibling Rivalry.
Open to Grad House members and theirguests. No minors allowed.
Concert 2
Friday March 28 2003At the Texas Bar-B-Q GrillShow starts between 9-10pm$5 dollars with all proceeds going to theFood Bank
Headlining the Tessa Hoffman Project
Tessa Hoffman is 18 years old and she'shas already established herself as anaccomplished artist. She plays regularilyat the Grad House and has just released hersecond album January 2003. Her band ismelodic and highly talented. An 8 peiceband with accoustic guitar, saxiphone,drums to name a few.
The opening band yet to be determined. Igarentee you that they will be good.
Open to everyone except minors.
Charity Concerts
Michael McWilliam3A Mechanical
Will Good Marks Really Make You Happy?
Sandra Lê
4B Systems
Last Wednesday, over 70 high schoolstudents from across Ontario turned
up for Shadow Day. Shadow Day isdesigned especially for high school stu-dents interested in engineering to comecheck out what Waterloo's engineering isall about. Participants are partnered withan undergrad engineer, and are taken
around to lectures, shown the sites, andbasically have their questions answeredabout the engineering discipline of theirchoice. According to one enthusiasticShadow Day volunteer, "Shadow Day wasa huge success, and I'd love to do it againnext year!". So take it from your fellowengineer -- sign up for the next ShadowDay and show those high school kids whatit's all about!
Shadow Day
Jenelle Chen1B Software
Laura McCracken
Engineers Without Borders: Looking for aFew Good People
1 6 F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
Your Campus
Fourteen students from Waterloo’s 4BCivil Engineering class recently com-
peted in the annual Great NorthernConcrete Toboggan Race held inEdmonton, Alberta. Since its beginnings in1974, the competition has gathered teamsfrom universities across Canada and theUnited States to race five people down ahill on a concrete toboggan.
The rules of the competition stipulate thatthe toboggan must weigh less than 300pounds (136.4kg), carry five passengers,have a concrete running surface, be
equipped with a roll-over frame to protectthe occupants, and have a functional brak-ing system to halt the speedy toboggan. Each team must also come up with a themeto their toboggan in addition to a technicalreport and display to showcase the con-struction of the sled. Our theme this yearwas ‘Top Gun’ after the 1986 movie star-ring Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer as AirForce Fighter Pilots. Each team memberhad a nickname after a character in themovie, including Viper (Mark Mollison),Maverick (Paul Ready), and Goose (DenisViens). Our technical display was modeledas an aircraft hangar to store our ‘TopGun’ toboggan.
Race day found us near the MuttartConservatory in Edmonton, ready to send
our fattest men down a 500ft long slope.Chris Dixon, Shaun Fysh, Paul Ready,Mark Mollison and Greg McNally woresnowmobile helmets to protect their headsas they raced down the hill. Our uniquetwo-slab design had 3 guys on the backand 2 in the front to reduce the chance oftipping over.
The first run down the hill started well,and it was looking like our toboggan wasgoing to do well. It started to drift towardthe side of the run, and resulted in dump-ing the 5 guys out of the toboggan onto thehill. No injuries, except to the toboggan,which lay in pieces on the hill.
We came together as a team, however, andmanaged to use our best enginuity and
skills learned from watching MacGyver toput the toboggan back together. Bolts anda lot of duct tape got us down for anotherrun, where we were able to deploy ourpneumatically activated brake to stop thefat men from continuing further down theslope.
At the awards ceremony, we were awardedfifth place for our toboggan, including anaward for best technical display. We some-what happily drove the 3500km home toWaterloo with a phallic looking award,and a MacGyvered toboggan. We walkedaway cheering, though, our new teamcheer:
“Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé, Fysh’s mom, Fysh’smom…..”
You may have heard us singing this catch-ing tune lately in Engsoc meetings and inthe halls.
The competition was a great time, as wemet many great drunkards and competitorsfrom other universities. Congratulations toThe University of Manitoba for winningfirst place with their 1972 Summit Seriestheme. We’d also like to thank all our cor-porate sponsors, namely:
WEEFDept. of Civil EngineeringFaculty of EngineeringSika CanadaPCL Constructors CanadaAeconEBA Engineering Halsall AssociatesPK Custom Homes
As well, thanks to those of you whobought our tasty boggan burgers everyThursday for the past eternity. Thank you,we hope you liked our cooking.
Waterloo GNCTR Team Competes in Edmonton
Daniel Martis4B Civil
GNCTR Team from left to right:Rosie Pareja, Tania Bortolon, Steve Krysa, Chris Black, Denis Viens, Mark Mollison, Paul Ready, Chris Dixon, Greg McNally,Maria Kyveris, Jolene Koch, Amy Kellestine, Dan Martis, Shaun Fysh.
What is Engineers WithoutBorders?
Have you ever had the feeling thatengineering is a profession with little
positive social consequences? Have youever felt vacant because our courses do notteach us how to ‘make a difference’ in theworld? Engineers Without Borders(EWB) is here to change that. EWB is ateam of exceptional engineers who are tak-
ing action on the global inequalities pre-sent in our current world. EWB membersare actively pursuing the improvement ofthe quality of life for everyone around theworld through implementation of environ-mentally and economically sustainableengineering projects.
At the University of Waterloo, EWB has astrong core and a large critical mass ofmembers that are breaking down the bor-ders of inequality locally and globally. Infact, EWB started at UW (est. 2000) andthe energy and vibrancy of the team hascaused EWB to spread to 21 universitiesacross Canada (UBC, U of Alberta, etc.),the US (Cornell, UCLA, etc.), and aroundthe world (Europe, Asia, etc.) TheUniversity of Waterloo chapter hasfocused on providing community aware-ness for the surrounding area, implementa-tion of large-scale projects, and has sentseveral interns around the world to solvetechnology related problems.
What are we currently work-ing on?
EWB has a strong focus on providing
practical low-tech solutions to sociallycomplex problems.
The Waterloo Chapter has built a capacityto assist projects in the third world andprovide direction for campus research ini-tiatives. Over the past three years thechapter has guided several student-basedproject initiatives with some incorporatingoverseas placements. Learning from pre-vious projects and internships, the chapteris building a Biosand FiltrationTechnology (BSF) with several objectives:
- Improve all aspects of BSF use in ruralapplications through research activities,- Build a strong basis of BSF expertisethrough international internships involvingthe implementation of BSF programs,- Provide solid and accessible technicaland field support for BSF programs indeveloping communities, and - Employ the project as a means for cross-cultural exchange and a vehicle for socialentrepreneuring.The group already has been successful inproviding technical support to a colleaguein Uganda and a project team at ConcordiaUniversity. The current expertise consistsof dedicated science and engineering grad-
uate and undergraduate students with abroad range of international development,technical, and organizational experience.Currently the group is organizing intern-ships, facilitating workshops, attaininglaboratory space and equipment, andrecruiting faculty to advise the team'sapproach to fulfilling their objectives.
Volunteers Wanted!
EWB is currently looking for qualifiedvolunteers. If you want to make a differ-ence, become a member, come to a meet-ing, or contact an EWB executive.Volunteers can help manage chapter pro-jects, go on internships, or provide generalsupport.
Contact Information
EWB Waterloohttp://waterloo.ewb.ca/EWB Canadahttp://www.ewb.ca/
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Olaf NaeseCo-operative Education & Career ServicesUniversity of WaterlooWaterloo, ONCanada N2L 3G1Phone: 519 888 4567 ext. 3782E-mail: [email protected]
Waterloo, ON – March 5, 2003 -- Co-oper-ative Education & Career Services at theUnversity of Waterloo is pleased toannounce the 2002 UW Co-op Students ofthe Year. Sylvia Ng, 3B Systems DesignEngineering and Scott Griffiths, 4BSystems Design Engineering were select-ed as UW’s top two co-op students of theyear. The two students received a recogni-tion plaque and a gift certificate for use inUW Retail Services outlets.
Scott GriffithsScott is a capable student who receivesexcellent marks in his academic studies atUW. Professor Ed Jernigan of theEngineering faculty writes, “[Scott] is a
natural leader, inspiring others to do theirbest by his own example, his intrinsicgood nature and sense of humor.”Scott’s co-op work terms have been rathervaried. Most recently he filled a volunteerposition with Habitat for HumanityCanada as a Technical Resource Plannerd e v e l o p i n gproject man-agement mate-rials for allC a n a d i a nhousing con-struction sitesand analyzingopportunitiesfor workers’compensationfor construc-tion volunteersin allp r o v i n c e s .Scott alsospent a four-month work term in Guinea as an AssistantCivil Engineer for the Canadian Centre forInternational Studies and Co-operation.Scott was recently highlighted on CBCradio’s local morning program withregards to his time spent in Africa. For hisefforts at his various co-op jobs, Scott hasreceived many excellent evaluations, aswell as one outstanding for the work he did
as a Research Assistant at the University ofWaterloo.Active within the community, Scott hasrecently orchestrated a national conferencehere at the University of Waterloo put onby Engineers Without Borders, with whichhe has been highly involved since January
of 2000. Scottwas alsoTreasurer forthe HarvardModel UnitedNations Teamfrom Januarythrough April2000. InD e c e m b e r2002, Scottwas awardedthe Universityof WaterlooP r e s i d e n t ’sCircle Awardf o r
Volunteerism, and was featured in theKitchener Record for this achievement.
Sylvia NgSylvia is an outstanding student whoreceives top marks in all of her classes.She has been the recipient of numerousacademic awards, including most recentlythe J.R. Coutts Engineers Without Borders
Award in Fall 2002, as well as achievingDean’s Honours List standing from Fall1999 through 2002. In 1999, Sylvia alsoreceived the CFCH Youth Achievementand Distinction Award.Throughout her co-op experience, Sylviahas continually impressed her variousemployers, receiving three outstandingevaluations along with two excellent eval-uations. Her most recent work term, work-ing for Exco Extrusion Dies in Markham,ON proved to be a fantastic experience;Sylvia successfully improved product leadtime by performing on-site studies andpresenting recommendations to manage-ment on a monthly basis. Aside from her academic and work-termaccomplishments, Sylvia is also an activemember of the community. From Fall2000 through the present, Sylvia has beenthe Team Leader of the CanadianUndergraduate Technology Conference.Her responsibilities in this position includerunning events and bringing speakers anddelegates to the conference. She is also aVirtual Volunteer for the Foundation forthe Global Advancement of Technology, inwhich she assists in the creation of a Website for literacy promotion in Camden,New Jersey. Sylvia is also an active mem-ber of Engineers Without Borders.
Co-operative Education and Career ServicesAnnounces the 2002 UW Co-op Students of the Year
Your Campus
Co-operative Education & CareerServices
Receiving congratulations from CECS Director, BurceLumsden are the 2002 UW Co-op Students of theYear, Scott Griffiths (left) and Sylvia Ng, (right).
On February 8th, for the first time inhistory, three African countries, South
Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, joinedforces to host World Cup Cricket, one ofthe biggest tournaments in the world. Withmore than 1 billion fans all around theworld, cricket is indeed the second mostwatched sport in the world.
If you are one of those people who dis-missed it as a baseball wannabe because itinvolves a bat and a ball, well, I've gotnews for you! You are missing out on thetime of your life because all the othersports fall short when compared to this"gentleman's sport". Cricket involvesmaintaining a delicate balance betweenstrategy, stamina and performance underpressure and politics. If you can't handlethree 8 hour matches in one week, it's timefor you to pack your bags and sign up forbadminton. Anything and everything ispossible in this game.
Canada in World CupYep, Canada has a cricket team and notonly, did they qualify for the world cup,they now hold four records in cricket'srecord books. They scored their first sur-prising win in the opener match againstBangladesh. This is Bangladesh's secondworld cup. However, the Canadians lostthe rest of their matches and thus, didn'tmake it to the next round, super sixes.
They made it in cricket history for scoringthe lowest total ever, in a world cup.Achieving a total of mere 36 runs againstSri Lanka, the Lankans finished off thegame in about half an hour.
Canadian batsman, John Davison, holdsthe world record of scoring the fastest cen-tury in the history of World Cup, knocking100 runs off only 67 balls against WestIndies. West Indies defeated Canada by 7wickets. (ouch, but good job, Davison!).He is also on the list for scoring the thirdfastest half century in the world cup, whileplaying the Kiwis. He hit 50 runs off only25 balls. Moving on to an impressive scoreof 60 runs off 37 balls, he hit four massivesixes, the last one landing the ball in theparking lot.
Another Canadian batsman, Ishwar Maraj,holds the world record for scoring theslowest half century ever in the world cup,against South Africa. He finally crossedthe crease and score 50 runs after playing155 balls.
Oldest RivalryIndia and Pakistan share the honour ofbeing the oldest arch rivals in cricket.Their match was the only one sold out amonth before world cup. Over 22,000spectators attended the game, filling thestadium to its maximum capacity. About100 million people followed it on theInternet and television. Day before thematch, South African airlines had toarrange for an extra half a dozen charterplanes to transport ardent fans from thesubcontinent.
In India, the day of the match was declaredas a public holiday! Furthermore, severalvillages that experienced frequent electric-ity failures sent a petition to the govern-ment saying that there should be noelectricity blackouts during the world cup.Movie releases and most of the weddingswere postponed. Fans kept both stones andfirecrackers in stock, depending on whichone they would need! Being devoted
Indian supporters, my father, my sister andI watched the match live on pay per viewfor $30 (from 2:45 am to 11:30 am). Aswell, in Village 1, about fifty peoplewatched the live match, in one of the TVlounges. Oh and India won the match withlittle sweat maintaining their continuouswinning streak against Pakistan in pastworld cups. What a sweet win!
Crazy FansFollowing India's bare win against theDutch and the humiliating loss against theAussies, disappointed fans took to thestreets. They carried out mock funerals ofthe Indian captain, stoned one of the play-er's home and painted another player'shouse black!
However, the Indian fans did a double takefollowing the wins against the Zimbabwe,England and Pakistan. They are now hail-ing Sourav Ganguly, the Indian skipper, asthe best captain! Let's see how long thatlasts. An Indian couple, scheduled to marry onthe same day as India were to playZimbabwe, had to take extra measures toensure the presence of their relatives andfriends. Two big screen televisions wereinstalled for the fans to enjoy the matcheswhile the couple exchanged vows. Thewedding cards had the ICC (InternationalCricket Council) World Cup trophy print-ed on the cover. The menu for the dinnerincluded a salad depicting a cricket field.Cricket fans enjoyed good food as well asa good win!
On the other side, Pakistani players arenow facing a probe. They will be inter-viewed by their cricket board when theyreturn home to determine the causesbehind their worst world cup performanceso far. In the past, angry fans have beenknown to "welcome" their teams with
tomatoes and insults.
Here are some cricket tidbits:
-Every four years, two or more nationshost the World Cup Cricket.-No host nation has ever won the worldcup.-For '03 (current) world cup, the host,South Africans, did not qualify for thesuper sixes. (They are out!)-Australians are the current cup defendersafter they scored a comfortable win againstPakistan in the final of the '99 world cup inEngland. They beat Pak by 8 wickets.-Aussies are the current favourites, andremain unbeaten so far in the tournament. -Teams playing in the 03 world cup:Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, England,Holland, India, Kenya, Namibia, NewZealand, Pakistan, South Africa, SriLanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe.-Kenya qualified for the super sixes afterbeating Canada, Bangladesh and SriLanka, the biggest upset victory in thetournament so far. Kenyans, who do noteven have test status, played brilliantly andstopped the winning streak of the '96world champions. This outcome was asunbelievable as France's loss to Senegal inworld cup soccer.-Qualifying teams for 03 super sixes:Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, NewZealand and Zimbabwe. Following supersixes, there will be quarter finals, semifinals and then the final!
References1. ICC World Cup official website,www.cricketworldcup.com2. Sify Sports news, www.khel.com3. Ananova Sports,www.ananova.com/sport/cricket/index.html?menu=sport.cricket <picture>JohnDavison, aiming for a shot against Kiwisat Willowmoore Park.
Aside Hockey, Football! Time for World Cup Cricket!
Ruchi Bhalla1B Software
Hi! Explorations was this Monday, March10th. It’s a big day where many, manykids Grade 6-8 come over and see whatUniversity of Waterloo Engineering has tooffer them. There are many exhibits,including Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream, FireFighting Robots and other amazing pro-jects. Many of them are graduate andfourth year design projects.
There was initially a large amount of
chaos, but it got under control, with thehelp of our volunteers and rovers. Thenafterwards, everything ran pretty muchsmoothly.
We also opened up a barbecue to raisemoney for the Food Bank. We madearound $200 dollars on behalf of the FoodBank, plus the leftover food that we could-n’t finish cooking. All in all, a very goodeffort.
Thanks goes to all the people whovolunteered, and the rovers, andespecially Steph Purnell, whobraved the cold all night to cookbarbecue buns.
I hope to see you again next year!
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Your Campus
On February 27 from 4:30-6:30pm inthe DC Fishbowl (DC 1301) the
Women In Engineering (WIE) andMathematics (WIM) committee hosted aWomen In Technology Night. Guestspeakers included Diane McKelvie fromCo-op services talked about SexualHarassment and the protocol for the co-opstudent in dealing with it. She explainedthe definition of sexual Harassment as an"unwanted attention of a sexual genderrelated nature (verbal, nonverbal, physi-cal)-jokes, touching, suggestive remarks,leering, or demands for sexual favours,threats, etc. In contravention of UW Policyand the Ontario human Rights Code; UWtakes sexual harassment seriously for fur-ther information regarding the universitypolicy and the OHRC, check out web site:http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infoebhr/.She went over the possibilities where itcan occur such as class rooms, residence,athletics facilities, part-time job, co-opwork term or anywhere else. It creates anunpleasant environment and affect one’sstudy, work, or well being leaving onepowerless, hurt, uncomfortable, or afraid.She went through several examples of sex-ual harassment. One being asked outrepeatedly after the offer being turneddown, or the work term supervisor contin-ually brushes up against you, getting x-
rated email messages making one reluctantto log on to one's account, or being teasedand hassled by residing students for beinggay. Diane went through the several waysone can seek help with out self reproach orignoring of one's feelings such happeningsshould be recorded and documented if theyoccur repetitively, someone trusted like afriends, parents, don, or some one oncampus should be contacted. One can alsolearn more by contacting Ontario HumanRights Commission at 1-800-387-9080 orif one concerned about one's personal safe-ty can reach the UW police at 519-888-4911. She also gave out handouts withcontacts of the people available on campusfor assistance.
Karen Cartmell a speaker from WIMspoke about "Balancing a SuccessfulCareer with Family Life" she set herself asan example of a working women with afamily and spoke under the light of herown personal experience as a Women InTechnology. She went through the Top tenTips for Balancing a Successful Careerwith Family Life, which are as follows:
1. Be Organized- Day timer- Work & Family intermingled2. Good Planning- Summer Vacation Scheduled forkids- Double up on tasks- Sunday's leftovers are Monday'sdinners
3. Be Flexible- Flexible working hours- Holiday Plans4.Set Priorities- Expect them to change- Don't try to do everything- Pick your Passions5. Determine what is Important- To you, to your spouse- Location of work- Triple Constraint: time, money,and quality/goal6. Build a Support Network- Grandparents- Neighbours/ Friends7. Deal with Guilt- Other people's values- School activities/ Sick Child- Forgive yourself8.Everyone do their Share- Household tasks: "60/40" rule forboth - Responsible Kids- Respect for each other9.Create Time for yourself - Professional Development- Daily - Exercise10. Develop Family Rituals- Regular Meal Routine- Travel for Work- Involvement of kids in decisions
Catherine Philips, alumni, who graduatedin the year 2001, as an electrical engineer,enlightened the audience with her perspec-tive of "Finding Success". She also spokefrom her personal experience both as a
female student in engineering and now awoman in work force of technology. Sheemphasized that one should find one'sinterest first, get into the field of one'sinterest, and should get along from theremaking one's future career by finding arelated, but flexible job.
Last but not least another speaker fromWIM spoke about majors and how shechanged her majors as a student herself toget the one of her interest and then getalong with her life successfully. The lastthree speakers emphasized the importanceof personal interest in certain things andhow that can mould one's life and choiceof career and bring success and satisfac-tion in all that one does in life.
All the speakers enlightened the bunch ofUW under grads and grads that showedtheir interest and came to attend the eventmaking it a success. All the tips given werereally helpful to make one a successful asa women in work force. Women InEngineering Committee co-chair Prof.Susan Tighe showed her encouragementand acknowledgement by joining us in thenight, despite her busy schedule. It turnedout to be a lively, informative night andmany women and girls in technology leftwith their mind more focussed to directthemselves in the right way or according tothe speakers the way of their own interestand choice.
Afsheen Khan2A Chemical
Flashback at Women in Technology Night
Explorations a Great Success!
Jonathan Ng
4B Computer
From top to bottom, left to right: Robotic Fooseball,Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream, Formula SAE, Pounce
1 9F r i d a y , M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 0 3
All of us in engineering have to face it.Our next fee statement will be over
$4000. Tuition itself will be roughly $3400which works out to about 20$ an hour ofclass. Think about that next time you skipyour 8:30.
Engineering undergrads at Waterloo paid$5286 [1] tuition in the year 2002-2003.That is third highest in the province, beat-en only by Toronto ($5789) and Queen’s($6260). However, when you start tackingon mandatory $425 co-op fees, we arereally not that far behind. Especially con-sidering we now get academic credit forco-op so it might as well be consideredtuition. Nationally, an “average” engineer-ing undergrad in Canada paid $3880 for ayear of schooling. Nova Scotia andOntario were the most expensive, withQuebec and British Columbia being the
cheapest. See table 1 forcomplete details [1].
So what gives? Why dofull time engineeringundergrads in Montrealpay $1668 while those inOttawa pay $4481? Andwhy do we keep beingbled for 15% when banksare demanding about 8%for a 10 year mortgage?The answer started withthe NDP and festeredunder Mike Harris. Theprovince of Ontario hasstopped supporting educa-tion to the level it had inthe past.
In 1991-92, Ontario stu-dent tuition accounted for22% [2] of a university’soperating revenue. Asshown in figure 1, in2000-01, this number hadclimbed to 41% [2] nationally and 44% [2]in Waterloo’s case. This number has onlygrown since then. Between 1995 and 2001,
the 11 Ontario universities with over10,000 students lost $324 million inprovincial support, $31 million of that cutfrom Waterloo [2]. This works out to
between $1500 and $2000 perstudent for major Ontario uni-versities. Notice the identicalparallel between the amountcut by government and theamount tuition has increased -between 1995 and 2001tuition jumped $1748 per stu-dent at UW.
Figure 1: % of UniversityOperating Costs Paid ByTuition [2]
So why do we, as students,have to pay? Universityadministrations have been putin “position impossible”.They have three choices: letthe quality of the faculty andfacilities decline due to lackof funding, sell-out to privatecorporations or demand moretuition from students. We allknow the fiasco surroundingthe support from Microsoftand C# that occurred in thenot too distant past and noneof us, past alumni included,want to see the value of aWaterloo education drop. Sowhere does that leave us?Soon tuition will climb toohigh, and become inaccessi-ble to some, regardless of co-op. Basically, the Ontariogovernment (which is freelyelected by the citizens ofOntario), has allowed theaccessibility and indepen-dence of post secondary insti-tutions to become threatened.This is a major problem, espe-cially considering Canada’sbelief that to succeed in thefuture economic market askilled, highly educatedworkforce is crucial.
Soon I, like many of you, willbe passing from these halls,with an iron ring balancing onthe small finger of my righthand. I will not be forced tobear the brunt of differential
tuition much longer. This is where thechallenge lies. As the future upper-middleclass of Ontario society it is up to us tomake education an issue and a priority. It isup to us to vote to pay higher taxes so thatwe can have good schools, a strong mili-tary, a healthy population and nice roads todrive our nice cars on.
I also challenge the University administra-tion. A portion of the financial burden onthis school could be offset by alumni dona-tions. I, like many students I have talkedto, do not intend to contribute to theUniversity after I graduate. We have beenleft with a sour taste in our mouths. Theuniversity life and spirit is pitiful at UW,especially in engineering. I believe a largeportion of this is due to irrational adminis-trative demands regarding words such asscunt and beer, frosh week regulations,and incredibly strict, military style pro-ceedings in Electrical Engineering, toname a few. If students are not allowed toenjoy themselves and are treated as chil-dren they will not feel like opening theirpocketbooks after graduation. An alumnidonation is like a tip, a thank-you for ser-vice above and beyond. To continue myanalogy, I have gotten my food deliveredwarm, not hot. It was busily slammed onmy table, and I was quickly shovedthrough the door to make room for the nextcustomer. The waitress didn’t even smile;to her I am table 99006199. I am not leav-ing a tip.
References:
[1] – Statistics Canada report onUniversity Tuition Fees For Full-TimeCanadian Students, 2002-2003.
[2] – Mackenzie, H. and Rosenfel, M.,“University Funding Cuts: ShortchangingOntario Students. ISBN: 0-88627-292-0.Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives,April 2002.
Your Campus
Tuition and Your Diploma - This Question Worth 15%
Dan Robinson
3B Systems
Figure 1: % of University Operating Costs Paid By Tuition [2]
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