The First Year Initiative, a pilot program run by Student Services, is aiming to boost its usership with a new contest. The program, which is generally known as FYI, runs workshops on study skills for students on the U of T St. George Campus. Users of FYI will be entered in a prize draw.

Davis Elisha and Terry Johnston, representatives of FYI, are quick to point out that the current contest is just “a small piece” of FYI’s plans, but they say promotion is a very active component of the program. They want to reach as many students as possible and, through the activities of FYI, put them in touch with Student Services, which is “something they’re paying for anyway,” said Elisha.

FYI is concerned with packaging, tailoring, and promoting more than 80 workshops that are held throughout the year (including the summer).

“More than half [of the workshops] are learning skills,” said Elisha. Others deal with issues such as finding a job, getting a place to live off-campus, and time-management. All departments of Student Services are represented through FYI, including the International Student Centre, Family Care Office, and First Nations House. Students who have signed up for the program are invited to FYI events and meetings.

At the moment, 1,700 out of 6,000 first-year students are signed up.

“We have learned,” said Elisha of overall progress of FYI to date. “One of the things we heard is ‘I got the booklet but wasn’t sure how I could use it.'” He also said that one of the common complaints heard in FYI feedback was that students could not “see the relevance” of FYI workshops until they were already a few months into classes.

Promotional efforts have been extensive. They include distributing booklets through every college registrar as well as in frosh packages, making announcements in first-year classes and tutorials, Zoom Media ads (the ones in campus bathrooms), and weekly orientation sessions at 89 Chestnut Street, the residence that used to be the Colony Hotel.

Johnston says that the most effective materials were the booklets that were “put in the hands of students by colleges.”

In future years, FYI aims to have every first-year U of T student signed up for the program.