Classes begin for increasingly diverse student body at UC

The first day of classes for the fall semester at the University of Cincinnati starts Monday, Aug. 23, and more than 46,700 students are expected to begin instruction with a more traditional fall term, focusing on in-person instruction and activities. 

“We expect our enrollment to be similar to last year and are waiting to see how enrollment settles in the next few days,” says Jack Miner, vice provost for enrollment management at UC. “We may still break last year’s record, but there are some highlights in this year’s enrollment numbers that are worth celebrating even at this point.”

Last year, the university set an all-time record for the most diverse student body in its history. This fall, UC broke that record.

“Our continued strong enrollment numbers at UC really reflect the commitment we have had to support our students during COVID, including additional financial aid, increased academic support, policies that are supportive of students and continuing to provide high quality learning experiences in the classroom and out of the classroom,” says Miner.

2021 — 46,700+ (projected, final tally due by mid-September)

UC President Neville G. Pinto says education should be accessible to all citizens.

“As a public university, we have an obligation to be sure that we are truly inclusive,” says Pinto. “And so that means opening our doors wide and allowing more people to be educated at a higher level. 

“It is with that ambition that we are very deliberately targeting increases in enrollment every year. But we also want to ensure that the quality of the educational programming is not compromised. In fact, it is strengthened because increasing the diversity of students strengthens the quality of the experience on campus.”

The university continues to follow safety protocols in keeping with new guidance from the CDC and requires all individuals both fully vaccinated and those not fully vaccinated to wear a facial covering indoors. Students and parents are directed to visit the updated UC public health page to stay current with COVID-19 guidelines. 

To further encourage vaccination against COVID-19, the university will conduct drawings for weekly awards in varying amounts of $2,500 or $5,000, depending on the week. In all, the university will award nearly $50,000. Weekly drawings take place Aug. 23-Oct. 4.

Students enrolled for fall 2021 who have received their COVID-19 vaccinations and voluntarily report those to the university are eligible to enter and win. See full details.

UC’s attraction isn’t a surprise to students like Austin Wood, a fourth-year business economics major from Indianapolis, Indiana, or Nachiket Dighe, a second-year student from Mumbai, India, studying computer science.

“There are so many good programs here and all of them just keep getting better as time goes on and are becoming more known around the country and world,” says Wood. “Each year, I think we have more residents on campus and it just shows students want to be here.”

Dighe agrees, noting it was UC’s co-op program that attracted him to Cincinnati. Cooperative education was founded at UC in 1906, and it continues to expand as an opportunity for all students building on UC’s signature programs in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Information Technology and the Carl H. Lindner College of Business.

“UC has always been a good school and was ranked fifth in terms of co-op in the country,” says Dighe. “It’s a hot spot for people to come. Getting co-op experience before graduation is one of the best things about the university.”

Wood and Dighe are both student orientation leaders tasked with welcoming incoming students to the university. This year they introduced students to UC through a mix of virtual and in-person orientation activities.  

Wood says he thinks students will enjoy attending sporting events and activities that have been planned as part of Welcome Week that signal a return to campus. 

“Welcome Week will have a lot of events outside,” says Wood. “Our students have not been able to experience these types of activities on campus. Nippert Stadium will be open for students to come and watch our highly ranked football team and that will be something awesome to see. We have really been missing out on that during this past year-and-a-half or two because of the pandemic.”

Many students come to UC for the chance to work on original research with leading experts in their chosen fields.

UC is a leading public research university, ranking in the top 3% in annual research expenditures among institutions of higher education that invest more than $50 million per year. UC spends an average of $432 million each year on research and development across all its colleges.

Students can get hands-on experience in research as undergraduates, even publishing their work and presenting it at conferences. This often sparks an interest that leads to more student-driven research in graduate school.

“We offer a diversity of opportunities,” said Patrick Limbach, an Ohio Eminent Scholar and UC’s vice president for research. “Whether you’re in the creative or performing arts, humanities, engineering, sciences or medicine, that is one of our strengths.”

UC launched its Research 2030 strategic initiative last year to support its important role in the Midwest as a top urban research university based on the nonprofit Carnegie Foundation’s rankings. UC’s research has a measurable impact, whether it’s supervising clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine or unearthing archaeological mysteries around the world.

“We try to tell the story of how that work makes a difference: How does it improve the lives of people around us?” Limbach said.

UC also helps students and faculty turn good ideas into business opportunities through its Venture Lab and 1819 Innovation Hub, both which support budding entrepreneurship. 

“We have the scale and the commitment as a leading research institution to provide that experience to our students,” Limbach said. “At UC, a big emphasis is on maintaining our cutting-edge facilities. We’re always looking for what’s next to stay ahead of the curve.”

As new and returning students traverse campus it will be hard to miss some of the on-going construction projects.

Most notably, construction crews began work on the new home for the College of Law in the middle of the Uptown campus.

The UC Board of Trustees approved the use of more than $29 million in state funds as part of the $45.6 million plan to renovate the former College of Business building. It is scheduled for completion in August 2022.

Visitors to the Uptown campus may also notice crews working on Calhoun Hall, a 16-story high-rise with 13 floors used for residential, dining and related support space. Located on Calhoun Street, the dormitory has housing capacity for more than 800 students and closed when significant renovations began in June. It is scheduled to reopen in summer 2023.

UC will invest $80.4 million into renovating the 173,000-square-foot building, which opened in 1967. Improvements will include a new exterior, elevator upgrades, updated rooms and private restrooms along with complete replacement of the residence hall’s mechanical, electrical, plumbing, telephone and data systems. 

A short distance from the Uptown and medical campuses, a new structure, the UC’s Digital Futures complex, is taking shape. It is adjacent to the 1819 Innovation Hub and located in the Cincinnati Innovation District along the southeast corridor of Martin Luther King Drive and Reading Road.

Construction of Clifton Court Hall, the new College of Arts and Sciences social sciences classroom building, started in May on the northwest corner of campus near the DAAP building. It is a $93-million project and is expected to be completed in summer 2023. 

Clifton Court Hall will become home to psychology, philosophy, political science, romance and Arabic languages and literatures, German studies, communication, journalism and digital media. 

While many were off campus, UC took the opportunity to rebrand the Food Court in Tangeman University Center (TUC), explains Todd Duncan, senior associate vice president of campus services.

Visitors can still enjoy Chick-fil-A, but they also have the option of Panda Express, Qdoba Mexican Eats and Switch’n Kitchen, a partnership between the university and a group of local restaurants. Different Cincinnati-area restaurants offer their cuisine, rotating or “switch’n” on a monthly basis, during the semester at this location. The first brand that will be in Switch’n Kitchen this fall is Eli's BBQ, a local favorite.