The Engineering Student Council (ESC) held its second-annual Engineers’ Week on campus during the week of February 20 to 24 to promote and acknowledge engineering at Villanova but only a handful of engineering undergrads participated.

The purpose of Engineers’ Week according to Matthew Bochanski, president of the ESC, is to celebrate engineering at Villanova University.

It allows for engineers to have an opportunity in their demanding schedules to relax and reflect on their college life. The week long festivities, Bochanski described, also offers a window into the college of engineering for non-engineers.

“This is the one week out of the year that highlights the engineering student body,” Bochanski said proudly.

Low participation plagued this year’s celebration however, with attendance at each of the events ranging from its highest of about 20 students to its lowest of seven or eight students.

The numbers were even lower in comparison to the student participation of last year’s Engineers’ Week, with some events like the Engineering Olympics having half as many participants as the year before.

Bochanski believes this is due to having the facilities to host each event available only late at night. The Engineering Olympics, for example, had to be held at 8:30 p.m. because Alumni Gym was not available at any earlier time.

Before last year, it had been years before Villanova Engineers had held a week full of events in their honor.

Former Engineering Dean Capuzzi resurrected the idea of Engineers’ Week last year and encouraged the members of ESC to visit the National Association of Engineering Student Councils (NAESC) last April in St. Louis to spark involvement.

The members of the ESC were impressed by the impact of Engineers’ Week on other school campuses and how serious the students were while participating in the events.

It was from this passion and the magnitude of Engineers’ Week at other schools that inspired the members of ESC to bring Engineers’ Week back to Villanova.

After finally bringing Engineers’ Week back to campus last year, Bochanski and the other members of the ESC wanted to bring some of the enthusiasm they saw in St. Louis to Villanova’s Engineers’ Week this year by incorporating more fun-related activities into the week than the year before.

The ESC members succeeded in creating enthusiasm among the students this year with new events like dodge ball and a big screen Halo 2 tournament, but on a much smaller scale than what they had experienced in St Louis.

Despite the lack of student participation, Bochanski perceived the week as a success.

All the events went as planned and everybody who did go had a good time, according to Bochanski. He believes that this year’s Engineers’ Week was a big step forward from last year’s and will serve as a springboard for next year’s Engineers’ Week.

“It was definitely a necessary jump for progression,” Bochanski said.