Students swarm into area college campuses

BGSU, Lourdes start next week; UT already going

Faculty, staff, and students pick up a free meal during a picnic held Thursday at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital, to celebrate awards and honors given to UTMC over the last year. The medical college is welcoming 177 first-year students this year.

Colleges are welcoming new and returning students to area campuses, as back-to-school season gets under way.

The University of Toledo Medical Center threw a celebratory picnic Thursday for students, residents, doctors, and other staff. UT classes began Monday, including those for 177 first-year UTMC students from 26 states.

Dr. Jeffrey Gold, chancellor and executive vice president for biosciences and health affairs, said the gathering on the grounds of the former Medical College of Ohio was “double-focused.”

“It’s a way to say thank you to all of the physicians and staff and [for] support of the medical center and at the same time to welcome our incoming medical students, pharmacy students, nursing students, etcetera,” he said.

Lourdes University and Bowling Green State University begin classes Monday.

Many of Bowling Green’s estimated 3,400 freshmen move in today.

The university plans numerous campus events over the weekend, including a welcome later today at Doyt Perry Stadium, where students will meet the Falcons’ mascots and learn the school fight song. A BGSU social media account on Twitter aims to capture the back-to-school excitement by urging students to post pictures while moving in.

More than 6,000 students live on campus, and roughly 19,500 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled this semester at BGSU’s main campus and the Firelands campus near Huron, said spokesman David Kielmeyer.

A UT spokesman said early estimates project an enrollment of roughly 3,100 students coming directly from high school and a total of 16,000 undergraduate students plus 4,500 graduate students.

Lourdes students moved in Thursday. The university expects 310 students to live in college housing this fall, including 133 freshman. The university began offering housing in 2010.

Enrollment estimates are not yet available, a Lourdes spokesman said.

A spokesman for Owens Community College, where classes started Monday, also said enrollment estimates are not available.

At the UTMC picnic, students in flip flops milled about with doctors in lab coats. For some returning, second-year students such as Erin Semple of Cleveland and Bradley Baker of Warren, Ohio, summer break wasn’t that much of a break. Both stayed in Toledo over the summer, and Mr. Baker, who spent time doing research, said the return to class this week “is more like a continuation.”

The event also highlighted a handful of awards won recently by the medical center from groups including the Ohio Hospital Association.

Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6056, or on Twitter @vanmccray.