University of Toronto students will now be able to track extracurricular activities completed on campus as part of the newly introduced co-curricular record launching on September 10.
The program, which is modelled on initiatives implemented at other universities, aims to track personal extracurricular activities to develop an authorized record of each student’s involvement and skills acquired from their experiences on campus. To verify individual student participation and skill development, U of T employees associated with U of T extracurricular activities will have the ability to access the database and acknowledge individual student involvement to verify the record.
Bonnie To, a UTM international student from Hong Kong, believes this is a valuable resource for her to demonstrate to potential employers her extensive involvement on the UTM campus as the communications officer for the UTM Anthropology Society, and international life peer academic leader at UTM’s Student Life, among other extracurricular activities she is actively involved in.
“If I have the record, then I can show people that I have those kinds of skills,” said To.
To, however, expressed her concern regarding the verification process being limited to U of T employees.
Paul McKay, a commerce and finance student, believes the ability to verify student extracurricular activities being limited to employees of the university, rather than students, is beneficial.
“It must slow the process down a little, but then you would have more accuracy,” said McKay. “They have nothing to gain or lose.”
Kimberly Elias, the co-curricular record program coordinator, mentioned some refinements to follow once phase one of the program is complete, including the addition of extracurricular activities at U of T not involving staff.
“We are starting phase one with a limited number of activities, and will spend this next year gathering more activities for the CCR database,” said Elias. “This will include engaging in an extensive consultation with student clubs and organizations to determine an appropriate validation process. A working group will be struck with the student societies and Student Life, with a specific focus on determining potential inclusion of student clubs in the future.”
The co-curricular record will be available for all U of T students, and will be accessible at ccr.utoronto.ca using students’ UTORid login information.
