For Maddie Fines, a freshman at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., it’s a chance for a fresh start. “I’m really looking forward to getting started and meeting new people,” he told CBC News. This enthusiasm is palpable among everyone involved in orientation — from the students to the volunteers and staff. After two years of Zoom inductions and virtual tours, student life is finally ready to return to something more normal this fall. Mahsa Eskandari, associate vice-president of programming at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Student Union in Waterloo, Ont., spoke to CBC News about the importance of orientation week. “There’s a lot of culture surrounding it [post-secondary], especially with orientation week. I think for a lot of people, this is one of the most exciting times,” he said. “You come to campus and you feel the energy, you feel the space, the spirit that everybody has.”
Personal welcome orientation
For those involved in improving the campus experience, orientation week is the busiest time of year, said Andrew Bisnauth, director of student life and campus engagement at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). It has planned about 150 events in the last four months. “We actually have about 11,000 students that come to TMU,” he said. “I predict we will have a lot of students [at orientation]very close to what we had in 2019.” WATCHES | College students share stories of mental health struggles:
College students share stories of mental health struggles
Students at MacEwan University in Edmonton were candid on camera, sharing their own stories as part of a class project. They hope it will help other students know they are not alone. This year, the downtown Toronto university added a drag brunch and a body positivity fashion show. She also teaches incoming students about organizational tools and time management skills, as well as hosting a wellness week. Mental health is becoming increasingly important for incoming post-secondary students like Fine, of Dundas, Ont. She said the number of wellness centers at Trent “is incredible” and will help her adjust to living away from home for the first time. Maddie Fines, a freshman at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., is looking forward to a fresh start after the COVID-19 pandemic. (Maddy Fiennes) At Wilfrid Laurier, Eskandari said the school’s orientation program has changed from a team competition format to a community format. This year’s focus is on building social connection and social participation, helping students reconnect after the challenges of the past two years, he said. In the past two years, when the pandemic forced orientation week events to take place virtually, attendance has been low—making this year a key one for schools. “I don’t think I went to any of the events, I probably went to the first Zoom [event] the first day and then I stopped going because it wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be,” said Ana Duvnjak, a third-year student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. Eskandari said she can see why students didn’t feel the need to connect. “It’s also probably not what they expected when they thought about what their first year is like.” Even when the orientation became hybrid, Duvnjak said she still found that the mostly virtual approach didn’t appeal to students. “We had a lot of kids on the first day and then everyone slowly started to taper off.” Toronto Metropolitan University’s Bisnauth said virtual fatigue was a major reason online orientations didn’t work, with organizers and students struggling to socialize. “How do we find those tools that can bring students together, still build that community, create some of that friendship, so that we lessen the impact of having to be online?” he said. However, Eskandari highlighted an unexpected pattern that emerged from virtual orientation. “We’ve seen a lot of students who maybe haven’t had a full orientation week tend to volunteer a lot. Because not only are they helping their first year transition to university, but they’re getting experience of maybe some of the things they didn’t get to do,” he said. Students gather on the Toronto Metropolitan University campus during orientation week. Andrew Bisnauth, director of student life and campus engagement at the university, says virtual fatigue was a major reason online orientations didn’t work, with organizers and students struggling to socialize. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) That was exactly the case for Duvnjak, who was a second-year orientation group leader in 2021 after her online orientation the previous year. “I was upset the first year that we didn’t get the proper orientation…I feel like a lot of people were hoping that we would not only be able to attend orientation, which is a lot of fun, but kind of make up for what we’re missing.” Zach Groves is another student who had a completely virtual orientation, so when he became the orientation coordinator at the University of Toronto, he was scared. “It’s very scary. That’s the first thought, I would say, because, like, whenever I think about design orientation, I just think, like, I’ve never seen that,” the third-year student told CBC News.
Lessons learned for the future
Julie Seeger, an architecture student and orientation coordinator at the University of Toronto, said the university is lowering the cost of orientation tickets so it can reach as many students as possible. She also takes advantage of online resources and plans a variety of events for different comfort levels, as some students don’t feel ready to return to in-person events. “We try to also include a large number of things that are inside, things that are outside, things that require closer contact versus things that are more relaxed, detached,” Seeger said. Julie Seeger, a student and orientation coordinator at the University of Toronto, says the university is lowering the cost of orientation tickets so it can reach as many students as possible. (Rena Seeger) Victoria University will maintain a hybrid model, hosting a virtual Q&A session, campus tour and social programming along with personal orientation. There will also be a series of Zoom webinars and drop-in “speed friending” and trivia activities. Emily Huynh, director of student life and engagement at the University of British Columbia, said that COVID-19 has helped its programming become more inclusive of students who cannot be physically present for health reasons, who are uncomfortable being in a large group or is from another country. “[We’re] being really conscious and attentive to the ways we can make our programming more accessible and barrier-free,” he said. International student Monisha Vinod, from Bangalore, India, is an example of this. She used the online orientation at the University of Alberta last year to prepare her for school abroad. Monisha Vinod is an international student from Bangalore, India, attending the University of Alberta. Last year she took part in the university’s online orientation to prepare her for school abroad. (Monisha Vinod) “It was like a course that we had to complete before we got to Edmonton and it was really well organized,” he said. The course helped her with travel documents and work schedules she might need, but also helped her familiarize herself with Canadian culture. “I saved all the links before reaching here, where I could do trekking and things like that. Information about national parks was given,” said Vinod, an MBA student. “Edmonton is the city of festivals and I’ve bookmarked it and booked it for July and August this year — and especially the food and music festivals.” The orientation program also gave her information about where to buy a winter jacket at a reasonable price and budgeting during her time in Edmonton. Vinod compared notes with other international students and said they generally found the online orientation helpful – especially those who arrived late due to visa complications and missed their host week. “They have these resources and they can still be ready when they come here. So I think the university has realized that, and that’s why they have both options,” Vinod said, adding that she believes the school should continue to offer guidance online when pandemic restrictions are no longer needed. “I think it’s actually kind of a positive piece that comes out of programming this way through the pandemic, is that we’re better equipped to do it and we kind of have a lot of offerings available for students,” said University of Victoria Huynh .
