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VIDEO: Record Crowds of Bearcats Arrive on Campus
Photos By: Ashley Kempher and Dottie Stover (Video by Jay Yocis)
Classes get underway at the University of Cincinnati on Wednesday, Sept. 23, with the largest crowd of Bearcats since 1981 and the largest freshman class ever at 6,000 students.
UC is projecting a total enrollment of 38,700 students amid success in retention and recruitment following packed open houses and campus tours.
The video features scenes from the move back to campus Sept. 18 and 19, which included year three of a green effort to recycle the cardboard boxes that hauled student items.
Shawn Tubbs, student coordinator for the President’s Advisory Council on Environment & Sustainability (PACES), estimated that the initiative would result in several tons of cardboard sent to recycling instead of a landfill.
Other student volunteers assisting with the move included the Hall Opening Team (HOT), ROTC cadets and UC Athletics, as well as faculty and staff participating in UC’s Helping Hands and Bear-ginnings programs
UC Housing & Food Services reports that 3,900 students have been assigned housing in the residence halls and Stratford Heights.
Housing and Food Services has converted some residence hall study lounges into overflow student housing to accommodate approximately 120 students.
At Sunday Convocation on Sept. 20, UC Interim President Monica Rimai welcomed the largest freshman class ever at UC, with students arriving from 84 Ohio counties, 35 states including Washington, D.C., and 36 countries. Rimai told the freshmen that they had already demonstrated an overwhelming commitment to the university’s values of service by donating 2,690 cans, packages and boxes of food during orientation to feed hungry families in Cincinnati.
View a slide show of the move-in and Convocation
UC Football Coach Brian Kelly, greeted with a roar of applause after UC’s win Saturday at Oregon State, called on the Student Orientation Leaders (SOLs) to hold up UC’s 2008 Big East Football Championship trophy. He asked the freshmen if they were going to be the loudest freshman class since they were the largest freshman class, and declared the Sept. 26 home game against Fresno State a “Whiteout Game,” encouraging students to wear white, turn out and be loud.
Jamelle Elliott, UC’s new Women’s Basketball Coach, told the students that she too went through orientation and feels that she’s part of the freshman class. She invited the students to come out and support her team first home game on Nov. 15.
UC Senior Vice President and Provost Anthony J. Perzigian told the students to take advantage of the precious time they will spend at UC. He told the students that knowledge is not only disseminated through teaching and learning, but that knowledge is also produced through research, and emphasized that UC is one of only three research-extensive universities in Ohio.
| Ron Millard, left, Student Orientation Leader Drew Stocker, and the UC Gnome |
With that in mind, Ron Millard, professor of Pharmacology & Cell Biophysics for the UC College of Medicine, led an interactive presentation about undergraduate research opportunities to demonstrate that the students were now a part of a 21st century urban research university as well as a top 20 public research university. Using technologies such as Twitter, Facebook and Personal Response System (PRS) “clickers,” the students participated in exploring UC’s many significant discoveries as a research extensive university. The examples included Albert Sabin’s oral vaccine for polio and George Rieveschl’s discovery of the antihistamine Benadryl.
Millard made these recommendations for students to pursue future success at UC:
- Read widely and deeply
- Write, don’t just text
- Engage in face-to-face conversation to test ideas and arguments
- Get outside the comfort zone
- Find the best teachers and mentors by getting to know faculty outside the classroom.
As Millard finished his remarks, the UC Gnome floated to him with some postcard snapshots of research adventures close to home and far away, including the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, the north slope of Alaska where climate change is being explored, the Galapagos Islands where more study on geckos and finches is planned this fall, and the Himalayas, where geologists Lewis Owen and Craig Dietsch conduct the only field course taught right in the Himalayas.
| Tim Lolli |
UC Student Body President Tim Lolli encouraged students to push themselves to become involved at the university, just as he did as a freshman. “I have made my mark at the university and I challenge all of you to do the same, to find your place, to find your niche, to find your opportunities. If you do this, I will guarantee that you will graduate knowing that you left this university a better place than it was when you came here today.”
Lolli encouraged the freshmen to make their mark now by joining the Hoxworth All-University Blood Drive Oct. 12-15 at Tangeman University Center (TUC). Hoxworth’s goal is to secure 100,000 blood donors around the Tristate.
Lolli then encouraged the students to wear the UC lapel pins that were handed to them at the start of the ceremony to finish their formal induction into the university. “It symbolizes that you, like us, are UC Bearcats. We celebrate diversity, create community and pursue excellence in all that we do,” Lolli said.
As the ceremony came to a close, Mitchel D. Livingston, UC vice president of student affairs and chief diversity officer, led the raising of the freshman banner – the 237 pieces that the freshmen created during orientation to depict their vision of UC’s Just Community. Just Community is a UC program for civic education developed around the principles of pursuing scholarship and leadership, celebrating the uniqueness of each individual, practicing civility, embracing freedom and openness, seeking integrity, promoting justice, striving for excellence and accepting responsibility. The banner was 48 feet high and 56 feet wide.
| Pinning Ceremony |
“This banner symbolizes you as an individual becoming a part of the university,” said Livingston. “It represents you as a citizen of our community with all of its associated rights and responsibilities. It also represents your commitment to the values that will make ours a just and more caring community.”
The students also received a rousing welcome back from the SOLs that led them through Summer Orientation, as well as the Bearcat Band and the UC Cheerleaders.
