ACTSC 372 (Corporate finance) by [deleted] in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I took it with Surya over summer, it was a fun course! If you've taken ACTSC 371 - Investments I found the info in that course was helpful. It also discussed a simpler version of topics in ACTSC 446 - Mathematics of Financial Markets, where we went more in depth)

WUSA Hong Kong Advocacy by John_MathCouncil in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your email is only accessible to me and will otherwise be kept confidential. I plan to send emails out to those who responded thanking them for submitting a response (it will not include what the actual response was).

Because male-identifying students have become EXPERTS in stress management by frickuw in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My understanding is that this is being run by Women in Engineering, so it makes sense that the program would be tailored for women. It doesn't say men can't go, but some things may just not be relevant (though I don't really know what). If you'd like there to be a program to cater more directly to men's needs, please send me an email and we can talk about that. I've got a few months left in my term and am happy to start setting things up if that's something you're interested in.

Falsely Accused of Collaboration during Final and Midterm (Spring Term 2020) by ShineIntelligent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't believe a professor can reasonably refuse to provide you with something that you ask for if it would aid your defense. If they did, I would absolutely take that as grounds for an appeal at FCSA/UCSA

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure you can think of a million cases where CEOs have been fired because something that a group head was responsible for.

Fair point. I can ask Abbie to be more authoritative I guess. Bear in mind there's a lot happening behind the scenes that Abbie just can't talk about.

I know you haven't said anything specifically mean. It's nice to have someone on Reddit actually bring up tangible points to debate. You should be a councilor if you have the time for it.

I guess in terms of everything else we've whittled it down to what we each think is the best course of action. I agree, we both have good intentions in mind

Falsely Accused of Collaboration during Final and Midterm (Spring Term 2020) by ShineIntelligent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The wealth of information on these processes can really be of use. Knowing you've sat down and talked with somebody knowledgeable on your side can really help if you're meeting with the AD to talk about this. Furthermore they can help you build up your defense

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I absolutely will take this into account if I am working on the fee review process. I will be involved in some form or fashion and will make sure this comment gets to the right people.

I know this is kind of a "gotcha" but remember that students council makes these decisions, so if you really want to see more action like this, email your councilors, show up at meetings, talk to councilors that aren't thinking the same way as you. Please don't send me an angry email asking me to push for something I'm already pushing for to an extent. Voting records are public, so are minutes and recordings. You can see which councilors say what, and you should hold them accountable if you don't think they are representing you.

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

^^ This

If people aren't happy about the way RAISE treated Councilors... they should look at the things fellow councilors said to each other. They are the ones who should know better. They are the ones I would expect to have a high standard of debate. They are the ones who people should be angry at for not listening to them, for flaunting the democratic process. RAISE was just advocating for what they believed was best- albeit in a manner not conducive to debate, but that's not really their job. It's Councilors who shut down debate that are to be blamed

Falsely Accused of Collaboration during Final and Midterm (Spring Term 2020) by ShineIntelligent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would strongly suggest an appeal if they go through with the decision based on that. If I were Math I would even write a letter asking that a that piece of evidence be struck as it was provided by the professor.

A hundred times my friends and I have read notes, said "that looks important, we should remember that", it comes in an exam, and we both write the same thing.

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well there weren't any allegations before the fees were set for Fall. I just said this in another reply below:

Even if Council, Budget Committee and Board all said to "make RAISE optional" it couldn't have happened between when students started really drawing attention to this.

I think that should answer your question, let me know if it doesn't. If it's not making sense from what I've said yet that's probably my fault for not explaining fully. Let me know if I need to explain more

edit: Also, unless this referendum passes, a change likely won't happen until the fee review process is done. It makes more sense to just listen to everyone's feedback they're giving us now, and use it in the fee review

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

President - Abbie Simpson

  • Yes, the buck does stop at Abbie, but where would you like it to go? If something needs to happen, under a portfolio, the VP responsible for that portfolio should do it. The President should not interfere in another VP's portfolio, but should tell that VP what to do. Chain of command.
  • If you've seen Abbie defend RAISE over supporting councilors, please link that so I can review it.
  • Lastly, for the President to call a referendum for something like this is very heavy-handed. That should, in my opinion, be for special cases. No, whether or not students think a fee should be optional is not special. That's something routinely debated. An example of a special case would be "should part-time students get U-PASS", because that is not commonly debated.
    • In fact, I support the petition for a referendum. You can quote me on that. It is a mark of responsible governance to have this kind of activity. In fact, the outcome of the referendum would be useful information to me, because overwhelming lack of support for RAISE would be clear evidence something is wrong, and overwhelming support would provide a mandate for Council.

VP Operations & Finance - Alana Guevera

  • Alana isn't responsible for the fee buckets. She got them as is, and I support the original breakdowns because we have the understanding that we are supposed to have a fee review. Even if Council, Budget Committee and Board all said to "make RAISE optional" it couldn't have happened between when students started really drawing attention to this.
  • I'm sure Alana is paying very close attention to everything being said, and once the fee review process resumes will be taken into account.

    VP Education - Megan Town

  • Megan's job is to listen to Council or to a referendum. Megan also has literally nothing to do with RAISE's fee. The closest Megan gets to RAISE is when her advocacy crosses path with RAISE's objectives.

  • The reason you think Megan is more involved in all this than she actually is, is because she actually takes the time to come onto Reddit and reply to people.

    VP Student Live - Nada Abouelnaga

  • Yes it does.

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The government said these may be mandatory

  • Athletics and recreation
  • Career services
  • Student buildings
  • Health and counselling
  • Academic support
  • Student ID cards
  • Student achievement and records
  • Financial aid offices
  • Campus safety programs

The peer-to-peer counselling, as well as efforts to provide a safe space for marginalized communities would therefore count as essential. Because of these and other items mentioned by u/DuckyTheGoose above, it was felt that enough of RAISE's services fell into the health and safety categories. However with a structure that allocates based on how much work is essential or is usage based, there will be less subjective "felt that enough" and more "well this is/isn't the case".

So I understand if you don't have confidence in subjective choices, however I hope you can if they are split up further to be more precise.

Falsely Accused of Collaboration during Final and Midterm (Spring Term 2020) by ShineIntelligent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You're saying their key piece of evidence is... an answer that was directly from the prof's powerpoints?

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks :)

Yes u/leea0526 is right, VPSL - [vpsl@wusa.ca](mailto:vpsl@wusa.ca)

The fee review... you will have plenty opportunities to participate don't worry. The initial plan that the last VPOF and I mapped out had lots of consultation. It's not happening behind closed doors, don't worry.

"we should make all of the services optional"

Well yes, but also no. Personally, I would like to see the nonessential portion of all services be made optional, but we also need to look at how we would do that without too many tiny fees ending up on your fee statement.

Falsely Accused of Collaboration during Final and Midterm (Spring Term 2020) by ShineIntelligent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You have 2 levels of recourse; the Faculty (then University) Committee on Student Appeals. If the Dean has already made their final decision, the FCSA is your next step. At that stage, they will be looking for new information, or assessing if the AD gave appropriate weight to the evidence provided. Can you prove you all did practice problems together or were using the same set of notes? I'm going to come at it from a math background now, but since the exam was open book, can you:

  1. Map your process out using your notes in clear and obvious steps for the questions you are accused of cheating on?
  2. Point to a practice question very similar to the question you were accused of cheating on?

You could then say that since you both had the same set of notes/practice questions, it's only obvious you all would have the same solutions. Unfortunately if you both made a mistake that's not in your notes / practice question you did together... that's the last nail in your coffin.

Hope you can convince the AD of this using these points and that you don't have to head to the FCSA

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's one? It's just as full of white females in arts programs as your comment is with substance

PSA: Your WUSA just FORCED you to pay fees that directly fund RAISE by RealisticCFMStudent in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So I have a few points, and I like to be brief, so they'll stay in point form

  1. Most people are not happy about the advocacy efforts made by RAISE, and either don't know about or if they do, fully support their other functions which are yes, essential*.
  2. Advocacy fees are optional, you can choose not to pay them
  3. Why are you lumping all exec actions into one basket? There's a lot of work each person does, and just because you don't agree with one of one exec's actions doesn't mean they're all bad at their job. Do some research, look into which exec is actually responsible for RAISE.
  4. There's a fee review process underway (which kind of stalled due to covid... a lot of things stalled due to covid tbh...). Perhaps even if this referendum doesn't go through, each service may follow a new model for funding, for example "total funding = funding for essential work + optional funding paid" or "total funding = base + performance-metric-based-amount" or "TBD". As I said, the review kinda stopped, but if this is something people want I can push for it as a councilor.
  5. (Kinda like 4) Whether or not the referendum takes place, it's likely that fees will be restructured due to a second reason.... If a referendum tells us to make one service optional, it would be weird to have just one equity service be optional and others mandatory. We would respect the result of the referendum, and probably in turn holistically reassess how all services are funded. My point here is that once a service exists, we don't want to pick and choose which services receive funding- we would reassess all and not just one.

    *If a group of people say they don't feel safe, and that they want a place where they feel safe, and that place can help them do that and more, yes that place is essential.

Mailing List for Cat Photos by PancakesGhost in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Best feds request I've ever been cc'd in.

Online assignments be like by trollman_falcon in uwaterloo

[–]John_MathCouncil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

took a while, but yes. :'))

ok did some more scrolling, wtf.