VIDEO:  UC Students Move Back to Campus

Classes begin at the University of Cincinnati on Sept. 24 with more than 37,000 students expected, the largest number of Bearcats in 18 years. Students moved into the residence halls Sept. 18 and Sept. 19 as hundreds of volunteers representing administrators, faculty, staff and students helped arriving students get settled.

The video features scenes from last week’s move back to campus. This move marked the second year of a “think green” effort to recycle cardboard boxes hauled to campus for the move.  Student volunteers assisted at all of the residence halls to collect discarded cardboard boxes for recycling. Volunteers assisting with move-in also included ROTC cadets, UC Athletics and the UC Bearcat.

UC President Nancy L. Zimpher welcomed what is hailed as the brightest freshman class at UC to Sunday Convocation. President Zimpher told the students they came to UC from 396 Ohio cities and towns including Cincinnati, as well as 34 states, the District of Columbia and 33 countries outside the United States. President Zimpher said Convocation, the formal induction into the UC family, is one of many traditions at UC leading up to Commencement.

View a slide show of the move-in and Convocation

Convocation Webcast

Also at Convocation, UC Football Coach Brian Kelly presented the famed Victory Bell after UC’s win over Miami on Saturday night, adding that all 7,500 student tickets had sold out for the game. Kelly said it was the student presence at the game that charged the atmosphere as the Bearcats beat the RedHawks in this fall tradition. His advice to students was to go to class, get involved in their campus community and, as they did Saturday, support UC Athletics.

The ceremony was also an occasion to celebrate a national award for a UC student organization. Butch Hill, vice president for finance and long-range planning for the national council of Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society for First Year Students, presented the organization’s Order of the Torch Award to Anthony J. Perzigian, UC senior vice president for Academic Affairs and provost. Hill told the freshmen that two years ago, the UC chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta, led by Megan Barclay, took an organization that was fairly inactive and made it one of the best in the nation. It was because of this excellence that the UC chapter was one of only five nationally to be honored with the national organization’s Order of the Torch Award for national outstanding chapter.

Perzigian said the award, which recognized the chapter’s outstanding work on campus and in the community, was a key example of how UC’s students and faculty are forging key partnerships in the interest of improving quality of life in the larger community.

Perzigian also announced that UC will be partnering with the community to celebrate one of the most important milestones in the history of science – the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s publication of “On the Origin of Species.” Working with other universities as well as community partners including the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Perzigian says the year-long celebration, which kicks off in 2009, will examine the impact of Darwin’s research.

That led to the introduction of Thane Maynard, executive director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Maynard – accompanied by Lucy the bearcat, a horn-rimmed owl and a penguin – remarked on the zoo’s long-time partnerships with UC and added that the first-year students could one day provide the inspiration and the motivation to bringing back world habitats that are endangering different animal species. Maynard also invited students to join Maynard and President Zimpher for

UC Night at the Zoo

, which will be held exclusively for the UC community – students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees – from 5-10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27.

Also at Convocation, UC Student Body President Ryan Rosensweig encouraged students to be proud of their university, to make a commitment to positive change with the resources they’ll discover at UC, and to vote. This fall, UC’s Student Government kicks off a massive publicity campaign to sign up young voters at UC. Rosensweig added that a voter registration card was in each of the UC Bookstore bags handed out to students at Convocation.

The ceremony closed as first-year students were invited to attach their UC lapel pins as their class banner depicting UC’s Just Community was raised. Mitchel Livingston, UC vice president for Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, said the banner, made from flags created by the students at their summer Orientation, had become an annual fall tradition that represents the values that make UC a more just and caring community.

UC Back-to-School Information

Welcome Week Information