The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a 450-acre (180 ha) Health Science campus, which includes the University of Toledo Medical Center, in the West Toledo neighborhood of Toledo; the Center for the Visual Arts is located in downtown Toledo at the Toledo Museum of Art; and a research and education facility, known as the Lake Erie Center, at Maumee Bay State Park.
The university was founded in 1872 in downtown Toledo as the Toledo University of Arts and Trades. It closed after six years. The city of Toledo took it over, reopening it in 1884 as the Toledo Manual Training School. The vocational school was developed as a university through the late 1800s.
In 1931 the university moved to its current location in the Old Orchard[7] neighborhood. Since its establishment, the university has physically expanded to include more than 100 major buildings with a combined area of more 1,400 acres (570 ha) and transformed its academic program from one for vocational and secondary education into a comprehensive research university. It is known for its curriculum in the science, engineering, and medical fields. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
The University of Toledo has over 100,000 living alumni and a current enrollment of more than 13,000 students. The university has more than 300 student organizations. Its athletic teams, called the Rockets, are members of the Mid-American Conference.
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History
19th century
The University of Toledo began in 1872 as a private arts and trades school, offering subjects such as painting and architectural drawing. Jesup Wakeman Scott, a local newspaper editor, published a pamphlet in 1868 entitled "Toledo: Future Great City of the World." He believed that the center of world commerce was moving westward, and by 1900 would be located in Toledo. To prepare for such growth of industry and commerce, Scott donated 160 acres of land as an endowment for a university. The Toledo University of Arts and Trades was incorporated on October 12, 1872. The university's original mission was to "furnish artists and artisans with the best facilities for a high culture in their professions...." Scott died in 1874, a year before the university opened in an old church building downtown Toledo.
By the late 1870s, the school was in financial trouble and the school closed in 1878. On January 8, 1884, the assets of the school became property of the city of Toledo. The school reopened under city control as the Toledo Manual Training School. It offered a three-year program for students at least 13 years old who received both academic and manual instruction in the trades.
20th century
Jerome Raymond, the university's first president, expanded its offerings in the early 1900s by affiliating with the Toledo Conservatory of Music, the YMCA College of Law, and the Toledo Medical College. Raymond also created the College of Arts and Sciences. Despite the expansion, the school struggled financially and had various legal battles over control.
A. Monroe Stowe became president in 1914, and helped organize and stabilize the college. On January 30, 1914, the college became known as Toledo University. Stowe added to its offerings, founding the College of Commerce and Industry (later the College of Business Administration) in 1914, and the College of Education in 1916. During this period, enrollment grew from 200 students to around 1,500.
Along with the expanded academic offerings, extracurricular activities increased with the university's first intercollegiate athletic programs forming in 1915. Football was added in 1917. Other organizations formed, such as a student council and the university's first student newspaper, The Universi-Teaser, in 1919. The athletic programs received their nickname, the Rockets, in 1923 from a newspaper writer. He thought this name expressed the teams' playing style.
By the 1920s, Toledo University was a growing institution, limited only by the buildings that housed it. Classes were held in two downtown buildings, but both were too small. In 1922, the university moved into an automobile mechanics training facility that had been constructed for training of troops in World War I on the original Scott land. It had outgrown its first two downtown buildings.
Although twice the size of the old buildings, the location on the Scott land quickly became outdated after a 32 percent increase in enrollment created a shortage in classroom space. In 1928, Henry J. Doermann became president and initiated plans for a new campus. Doermann received his funding after a city bond levy passed by 10,000 votes. Doermann worked with a local architectural firm to design the new campus, using design elements of the universities of Europe. He and others hoped that the architecture would inspire students. Less than a year later, University Hall and the Field House were completed in the Collegiate Gothic style. Although enrollments remained stable during the Great Depression, Philip C. Nash, who became president following Doermann's sudden death, instituted drastic measures to cut costs, and made use of New Deal funds from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration to help pay for new construction and scholarships.
21st century
After a protracted protest by students, staff, faculty and community members, the board of trustees of the university agreed to include domestic partner benefits in the health care portion of the contract for faculty and staff with an effective start date of April 1, 2006. This development made the University of Toledo the first state university to begin covering domestic partners after the passage of Ohio Issue 1, several others had partner benefits before and continued them after the ban. The protest gained momentum after November 2004, when issue 1 was voted into law as an Ohio Constitutional amendment but began over a decade earlier with the work of several faculty members.
On March 31, 2006, Governor Bob Taft signed House Bill 478, which merged the University of Toledo with the Medical University of Ohio. The merger became effective on July 1, 2006. The institution retained the University of Toledo name, and the former Medical University of Ohio facilities are referred to as the Health Science Campus. Toledo became the third largest public university in Ohio in terms of its operating budget, as well as one of only 17 public universities in the country that has colleges of business, education, engineering, law, medicine and pharmacy. As a result of this merger, the College of Pharmacy will be one of only 45 American Colleges of Pharmacy located in an academic health science center. The college's "Future of Pharmacy" campaign (2008–2010) was initiated to raise scholarship and equipment funds for the college's expansion into a new building on the health science campus, an expansion that will increase educational and research opportunities for students and faculty. What used to be called the College of Arts and Sciences was divided into three colleges, including the College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences, the College of Communications and the Arts, and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Academics
The University of Toledo offers over 250 academic programs in a diverse and comprehensive range of studies. It is the sixth largest university in Ohio by enrollment, and offers a 20:1 student-to-faculty ratio and a median class size of 25.
National honor societies such as Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi have chapters at UT. The university also offers several ways in which students can enrich their academic experience. These include the Honors College, study abroad, service learning, various clubs, and undergraduate research.
Toledo is a public university and is governed by a board of trustees, and the Ohio Board of Regents, both appointed by the Governor of Ohio. The board, which is composed of 9 members and 2 student trustees, is currently chaired by Patrick Kenney. The board members are unpaid community members delegate executive power to the president. The current interim president is Matthew Schroeder.
The University of Toledo is composed of the following colleges:
College of Arts and Letters
John B. and Lilian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation
Judith Herb College of Education
College of Engineering
College of Health and Human Services
College of Graduate Studies
College of Law
College of Medicine and Life Sciences
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
College of Nursing
College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science
Research
The university has the University of Toledo Research Enterprise and a number of research centers and institutes.
Located at Maumee Bay State Park, the Lake Erie Center supports interdisciplinary research involving environmental problems affecting the Great Lakes.
The UT Polymer Institute, part of the College of Engineering, supports research in polymers and plastic technology.
The Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC) was created in January 2007 with an $18.6 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development and $30 million from federal agencies, universities and industrial partners to perform research involved establishing science and technology platforms, employing second and third generation photovoltaics (PV) materials, and devices tailored for applications in clean electricity generation. The three primary locations of the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC) include University of Toledo, Ohio State University, and Bowling Green State University.
The center's research is focused on improving large area materials and devices, increasing the efficiency of solar technologies, and lowering production costs – with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of solar-powered electrical generation systems in homes, businesses, and utilities, as well as supporting the nation's defense and aerospace needs for advanced solar energy systems.
In 2012, the University of Toledo joined as partner members of the Lowell Discovery Telescope (formerly Discovery Channel Telescope).
Athletics
The University of Toledo's athletic teams play as the Rockets, and uniforms sport the colors midnight blue and gold. The university's sports teams play in the Mid-American Conference. The Rockets football team holds eleven Mid-American Conference championships, in 1967 (co-champion with Ohio) 1969, 1970, 1971, 1981, 1984, 1990 (co-champs with Western Michigan), 1995, 2001, 2004, 2017, and 2022.
Toledo Rockets football played in the 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl on December 26, 2010, against Florida International. Toledo lost the game 34–32. Toledo played in the 2015 Go Daddy Bowl against Arkansas State on January 5, 2015. The Rockets won 63–44.
In the season of 2009, the men's tennis team finished 2nd in regular season with a 17–10 record, and reached the finals of the MAC tournament for the first time in 35 years.
The Toledo Rockets men's basketball team was the 2006–07 Mid-American Conference champion under Head Coach Stan Joplin, a former star player for the Rockets during the late 1970s, and was an assistant coach from 1984 to 1990. He was fired after slumping to an 11–19 record in 2007–08. The team received an NCAA Award For High Academic Performance Toledo tied for third-best APR mark in nation and MAC for second straight year. The University of Toledo men's basketball program ranks at the top of the Mid-American Conference for a second straight year in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Academic Performance Rating (APR). Toledo's 994 rating was tied for third place among all NCAA Division I men's basketball programs and trails only Columbia and Davidson.
In Spring 2011, the University of Toledo women's basketball team won the WNIT, becoming the first MAC team in any sport to win a National Championship in modern times.
The women's cross country has won four MAC Championships (2001, 2002, 2010, 2011) and three MAC Runner-up finishes (2003, 2005, 2009). The women's cross country team finished 21st at the NCAA Championships in 2011 and 28th at the NCAA Championships in 2010. The women's track team also finished as the 2012 MAC Indoor and Outdoor Runner-up.
Bowling Green rivalry
Toledo's principal football rivals are the Falcons of Bowling Green State University. The two teams formerly played for a trophy each year known as the Peace Pipe, a prize that originated in basketball but progressed to football in 1980. Due to NCAA regulations and an agreement between the two schools, new to the rivalry will be the "Battle of I-75" trophy, a bronze trophy awarded to the winner of the game. Toledo now leads the series, and Toledo currently has been dominating the series going 10–1 in the last eleven meetings, recently including a 66–37 blowout win at Bowling Green's home field, Doyt Perry Stadium.
Club sports
The University of Toledo also has a number of club sports under the direction of the university's Division of Student Affairs. Club sports receive funding from the university as student organizations, associated expenses in the sports are often supplemented by students' pay-to-play dues and fundraising activities. Club sports offered by UT include: football, bowling, women's basketball, crew, cross country, men's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, quidditch, sailing, men's soccer, table tennis, tennis, track and field, men's and women's ultimate disc, fencing, men's and women's volleyball, water polo, and wrestling.
A few recent accomplishments of the University of Toledo Sport Clubs include three straight individual wrestling national championships from 2006 to 2008; three Midwest-Collegiate Sailing Association Championships in 1950, 2008, and 2009; 2 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championship appearances in 2008 and 2009; 2 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Keelboat Championship appearances in 2021 and 2022; a NIRSA Open Division Soccer National Championship in 1996; and an American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division I National Championship in 1992.
Ice hockey
The Toledo Rockets men's ice hockey team is a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division I. Besides belonging to the ACHA, the team is also an original member of a conference known as the Tri-State Collegiate Hockey League (TSCHL) which was established in 2010. The team plays a 30–35 game schedule against other club teams in the region.