“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 high school to college. “Light the Torch” emphasizes the university’s commitment to student retention and graduation, as well as its expectations for academic performance.
Sunday, August 17
Passport to Success. As incoming first-year students move into their residence halls, their Resident Assistants (RAs) will present them with a campus map and a “passport” for recording their fall schedules. Then, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., students will locate their classroom buildings. Each building will be labeled with a code name (usually a noted UT figure) to enter in their passports. Other stops will include college advising centers and Hodges Library. Students who do not yet know their major and their specific “college home” will go to the advising center for the College of Arts & Sciences. The T-bus service will be in operation to facilitate getting around campus. Upon completion of the “passport” route, students are invited to submit the passport “stub” at the Student Success Center. The stubs will go into a drawing for gift certificates to be held during the freshman picnic at 5:30 p.m. that day.
Monday, August 18
University Welcome and Life of the Mind Convocation. At 11:30 a.m., all first-year students will gather at Thompson-Boling Arena to receive an official greeting from Chancellor Jan Simek and to meet UT men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl. UT professor Brian Barber, Director of the Center for the Study of Youth and Political Violence, will discuss this year’s “Life of the Mind” book: A Long Way Gone. Lunch will be served immediately after the convocation.
Monday, August 18 and Tuesday, August 19
“Life in the Class Lane” Sessions. These 30-minute presentations will run at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. in HSS 60. Attendance is essential. Students will learn about the Blackboard on-line course management system used in most UT courses; what to expect during the first year in college; and the strategies, attitudes, and practices that can lead to success at UT. Representatives will be present to answer specific questions about math, biology, chemistry, and foreign language courses.
Life of the Mind. As part of their academic orientation to UT, all incoming freshmen are invited to join together in reading an assigned book over the summer and 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 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. 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.
