Light the Torch adds an academic component to Welcome Week and provides a unified set of programs aimed at helping first-year students make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood and from high school to college. Light the Torch programs emphasize the university’s commitment to student retention and graduation, as well as its expectations for academic performance.
Sunday, August 19
Passport to Success. From noon–2:00 p.m. and 4:00–5:00 p.m., students will be encouraged to locate and visit all of their classrooms for the fall semester. The T-bus service will be in operation. Student volunteers will stamp the student’s “passport” at each location (or a sign on the door will tell students what to enter into their passport). The student will then submit the completed passport at the Student Success Center to enter a raffle (tentative prizes: gift certificates to the Campus Computer Store or Bookstore).
College Open Houses. Each college will hold an open house between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. Students who have not decided upon a college or major will be invited to the “Undecided University Student Open House.” These open houses are designed to introduce new students to their academic homes. Open houses will highlight college offerings, special programs, personnel, and support services.
Monday, August 20 and Tuesday, August 21
How to Succeed Sessions. These 20-minute presentations will run on a recurring basis from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in HSS 123, HSS 60, and A&A 109 (Art & Architecture auditorium). Professors and upper-division undergraduate students will cover tips for succeeding in the following high-enrollment freshman subjects:
View the schedule of sessions and plan your day.
Life of the Mind. As part of their academic orientation to UT, all incoming join together in reading an assigned book over the summer and will participating in a group discussion of the book during Welcome Week. The goal is to create a shared intellectual context for incoming students, to stimulate discussion and interaction, and to cultivate the skills of critical thinking, reading, and engagement with ideas that students will employ throughout their academic life and beyond.
For more information about the Life of the Mind program, including session assignments, visit the Life of the Mind website.
FYS (First-Year Studies) 129 seminars. Small enrollment, one-credit courses taught only by tenured and tenure-track faculty and offered only on a pass/no credit basis. The seminars will insert a more personal experience into the freshman year as a balance to the large enrollment freshmen courses. Find out more about the the FYS 129 seminars.
FYS 101 First-Year Studies. Existing program of one-credit, graded seminars, capped at 25 students each. These seminars teach students how to connect to the University, develop academic success strategies, choose their majors, and make sound career decisions. Find out more.
Note: Students may take one FYS 101 AND one FYS 129 seminar in the fall semester. They may take another FYS 129 seminar in the spring semester. They may not take two of either type of seminars in the same semester.
