Just three weeks before the end of the fall semester, I have come to the realization that I haven’t done any productive work outside of school since the start of classes.

As a first-year student, I naturally had many plans to do extra-curricular activities over the summer. French Club. The Varsity newspaper. Engineering Toastmasters. Engineers Without Borders. The Blue & Gold Committee (a spirit group for engineers). The Engineering Society, Academic Committee. The Engineering LEGO Club.

Tons of plans, but they’ve fallen through due to:

1. Time commitments. Toastmasters ends at 10pm on Thursdays, when I am often staying up late completing PHY180 lab write-ups. I also have limited time to begin with because the commute eats up 3 hours each day. LEGO Club… well, meetings are also on Thursdays, and I guess doing error analysis calculations is more feasible than constructing a house made of LEGO bricks.
2. Lack of response from group executives. I’m serious – I signed up for a gazillion clubs during the UTSU and Engineering Clubs’ Fairs, but have only been e-mailed by a handful. And some have only e-mailed once, and never again. The only French Club meeting I’ve been to was their introductory brunch, which, incidentally, was delicious.
3. Laziness. I signed up for blogUT, knew I was going to blog the second I had something to say, and… kind of forgot about it.
4. In my defence, it was partly also due to shyness and decision-making. I was trying to come up with something interesting to talk about. Whatever was remotely related to engineering, I stuck the blog entry into the Online Design Journal I’m required to keep in preparation for one of my final exams.

Considering that all of my friends here at U of T are first-years in engineering, I haven’t been doing non-scientifically-related writing for a while now, and I am slowly losing my French skills, my inactivity is clearly something I should deal with.

Fortunately, I kept the last e-mail I got from blogUT, in my Inbox where I could easily see it. And I discovered that not only was the founder a former EngSci graduate, but there were posts, personal ones (i.e. not just artsy reviews or school events!) that could resemble what I’d write in any blog.

I decided not to write for the Arts section of the Varsity when I realized that they didn’t publish book reviews (plus my  reviews are generally outdated – a few months after the book’s release), and didn’t write for the Science section because they seem to expect up-to-date news from research conducted right at the U of T. The Cannon, the engineering newspaper, has never e-mailed me since I wrote my contact information on the sign-up sheet.

So much for trying to be connected to student life. I guess that’s how blogUT started, because it sure feels good to be blogging and just… doing something aside from problem sets and whatnot.

A new school year has begun, and BlogUT has undergone a restructuring and has new members! Our intrepid founder and editor, JP, having finished his masters degree, is moving on to the real world and we wish him the best. JP will remain a member of BlogUT team but has stepped back and passed the torch to our new executives: Co-editors Ana Lopez and Julia Bolotina, and Financial Officer Lori Lee.

Ana Lopez will be managing our external affairs, which entails handling media and promotions, as well as helping with the overall publication. She will be our public face. Julia Bolotina will be our internal managing editor and be responsible for coordination, posting and internal organization. And Lori Lee will manage all finacial matters.

Most of our past contributors are staying on, and we all look forward to a great year in which there will be great changes as BlogUT expands, and instigates regular updates to provide more coverage of all things U of T. We would like to invite anyone who is interested in contributing or becoming part of the BlogUT team. We are looking for writers, photographers, and website developers/ designers. We would like to hear from you if you are passionate and want to get involved, so please contact us!

 
Photo from the blogUT Flickr pool by cl-s

University blogs are definitely the new way to keep students informed, and not precisely on politics. BlogUT is part of this new wave, which is growing rapidly and becoming a useful tool for university students. Check out what the Toronto Star has to say about us and this medium of communication. 

Join the trend! Get involved now!