No more PDENG!
Posted on April 16, 2008
The results are in and there will be no more PDENG for me! I am officially done with that god forsaken course with all its caveats and situations of concerns.
After attempting to orchestrate a failed mutiny in first year, getting put in the administration’s black book (I’m sure it exists), to failing PDENG35 on my first attempt over a ridiculously stupid “academic offense” (to which I’ll have to pay $1,400 to pay for the two extra courses I will have to take), they decided to pass my half-assed assignments, handed in late most of the time. Thank goodness.
Have I learned anything? Anything at all? No. I can genuinely say that nothing but bad things has come out of the five courses of PDENG. I haven’t learned anything that I didn’t know before, or could have learned on the job with more applicable situations and scenarios, rather than making up situations to talk about (environmental concerns when I’m programming an efficient algorithm? Please…). In fact, taking PDENG has only reduced my respect for the University of Waterloo and is still one of the few negative elements of the school and faculty that I preach to prospective students.
I wrote this almost three years ago in response to this blog post questioning the responsibility for content in regards to “immature comments” on the PDENG petition (I still think that these immature comments were just students expressing their honest and raw opinions of the course):
Let’s hope for the both of us that PDEng25 is drastically better and more thought out. That way we can both lay down our arms and all will be forgotten. Then again, if PDEng25 is the same dribble that PDEng15 was, may god help us all. - Richard Shih, August 9, 2005
I guess there is no god.
And just for shits and giggles, here’s a previously unpublished e-mail that I received when the PDENG petition, on August 6, 2005, was in full swing (and apparently people were swinging back):
To my apparent “Class Representitive”:
As a member of the 2009 class, I believe PDEng is a useful program which is necessary for the education of our class.
I believe that your website has not only undermined the impression of the University of Waterloo on employers, but is also composed of bias and false information. I insist that you immediately remove the site from the internet and petition in a less public fashion. I personally feel misrepresented and ashamed to have such words being stated and published against my school and program.
You have ceased to realize that the site is stated to be representative of our entire class’s opinion of the PDEng program and not only of certain individuals that agree with the published statements. I personally believe that the statements on the site make the members of our class seem immature and unprofessional, thus I would like the site removed or made “unpublic”.
In the future, if you would like to represent the entire class of 2009 please see that everyone agrees with the published statements before posting incorrect views.
If there are any concerns please feel free to contact me.
Thank you,
Stephanie B.
1B Environmental Engineering
EngSoc Class Representitive
1/5 POETS Programmer
In the next couple days I’ll discuss the untold stories (and e-mails) of the PDENG petition debacle. At the very least, since I could care less if the program continues now, it’ll make for a good laugh and juicy gossip.
Like what you see?
10 comments
It would be interesting to note if said Stephanie Borgs ever failed any of the PDEng offerings.
I’m so glad to be done too. 4 straight years of always doing school work. It’s still 100% bullshit that you have to take 2 additional courses because of their poorly designed program. I wonder if the PD program will ever make it into an issue of the Macleans university edition as a ‘reason not to attend’. Had I known that there was going to be this much bullshit I might have been more tempted to take the scholarship money from Queens.
Posted by Matthew Moody on Apr 17, 2008 at 2:33 pm.
Can’t wait for the sequel ^^
Posted by Adrian on Apr 17, 2008 at 11:20 pm.
Yay, I can’t wait for more gossip!
I would post more, but I already gotten into trouble and almost failed a PDEng course from the time I openly posted an e-mail from a mentor on Facebook, so I’ll refrain for now, maybe until I get my degree!
Posted by Sunny Ng on Apr 18, 2008 at 2:09 am.
I guess posting emails from TAs must be unprofessional rolf
Posted by Adrian on Apr 18, 2008 at 2:20 am.
What? Why would they do that? I would look up the legalities of posting e-mail without censoring the author’s name, but I’m too lazy. Actually, I’ll quickly look it up now before I post anything that McGregor sent… though hers were more fact-filled and not fun.
Posted by Richard Shih on Apr 18, 2008 at 7:52 am.
Well they kinda caught me on a technicality. I had a nice little private meeting with MacGregor and the lead mentor after the end of PDEng 45 after they gave me a “Conditional Pass” on the course. They said while my post did not constitute as slender, it was still considered unethical/unprofessional because I didn’t have permission from the other party to post a private conversation (e-mail) with their contact information (name and e-mail address) openly in public.
Posted by Sunny Ng on Apr 18, 2008 at 3:22 pm.
I’m pretty sure that it’s not illegal to post a private conversation without their consent. Besides, name and e-mail address aren’t anything. I’m pretty sure you can post someone’s address and phone number since they’re practically public domain. I may be wrong about this, but oh well. As long as you’re not screaming for the mobs to lop off heads, then it should be fine. Stupid.
Posted by Richard Shih on Apr 18, 2008 at 9:28 pm.
Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s not illegal if the e-mail doesn’t say it’s confidential or whatever, like the ones companies send. But they were saying it’s “unprofessional” and in the course you’re supposed to demonstrate how professional you are or some bs like that, which I guess is technically true and I couldn’t really argue against that.
Posted by Sunny Ng on Apr 18, 2008 at 9:45 pm.
Why has the petition movement ended? I just spread the website to about 10 of my friends, and I’m pretty sure they all signed it and will most likely spread it to even more people.
Who ever that Stephanie Borgs is, I wonder what the PDEng administration offered her to do such thing? Besides, unlike PDEng, the petition is completely optional, you don’t need to sign it to graduate. SO, if you some how feel “offended”, then GTFO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God…. Do you always write a letter to people on TV/Myspace/Blogs that have a different opinion than you, perhaps asking them to “remove” their own opinion?
Guess what, even terrorists have their own website and blogs, and they post whatever they are upto on there sometimes. Good luck if you ever stumble across one while you are browsing the web.
Posted by Steven on Nov 5, 2008 at 7:31 pm.
[...] sucks…if you have not heard from me enough, there are many other blogs and articles which state unnecessary and troubles this program causes. The packages to read from [...]
Posted by PDEng, you cannot escape it « Do you have your Nakama? on Oct 28, 2009 at 10:11 am.