Institutional Research

The continuous flow of ideas between the University and the broader invigorates the process of inquiry and heightens individual and institutional achievement. As noted in the BGSU Academic Plan, engagement engenders a sense of understanding about and responsibility for other individuals and for society at large. While enhancing our students’ academic experiences and our faculty and staff members’ professional development, this exchange of talent and expertise has the potential to significantly influence our diverse external constituents and communities in many ways.

Indicators

The National Survey of Student Engagement results indicate that the percentage of main campus freshmen and seniors who reported that they participated often or very often in a community-based project as part of a regular course have increased since 2001; the percentage of BGSU freshmen NSSE respondents who gave this response is also higher than that of freshmen respondents at peer universities. 

The NSSE results also reveal that the percentages of BGSU freshmen and seniors who report that they gained very much or quite a bit in contributing to the welfare of their community as a result of their educational experiences have remained stable since 2007 .

The percentage of respondents to the UCLA HERI Faculty Survey who reported that they taught a service learning course declined between 1998-99 and 2001-02, and was lower than that of faculty survey respondents at peer public Research II and Doctoral I universities ands also lower than that of respondents at an Ohio public peer university.

The percentage of respondents to the UCLA HERI Faculty Survey who reported that they performed some amount of community service also decreased between 1998-99 and 2001-02, and was lower than that of faculty survey respondents at peer public Research II and Doctoral I universities and also lower than that of respondents at an Ohio public peer university.

Student credit hour activity in off-campus extensions and distance learning shows a steady increase over the past six years.

Achievements and Improvement Initiatives:

BGSU was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as one of five institutions qualifying for its new community engagement/curricular engagement classification.

President Sidney Ribeau, in his August 2004 Opening Day Address , announced a major new University initiative called Organizing for Engagement.  This has included recommendations from the Task Force on the Scholarship of Engagement for various ways of recognizing, rewarding, promoting and supporting the scholarship of engagement at BGSU ; discussing engagement with faculty members, deans, and business, governmental, and community leaders; documenting current engagement activities; and forming an Engaged University Council charged with implementing this initiative across the University.  An interim director of faculty development in the area of the scholarship of engagement will be appointed in Fall 2005.  The scholarship of engagement will be integrated into departmental and college promotion and tenure documents by December 2006. The university's Board of Trustees has also passed a resolution in support of the integration of the scholarship of engagement into the faculty recognition and reward structure at BGSU.

A program called "Concepts, Cooperation, and Consensus: Community Responsibility and the Bowling Green Experience" that is designed to improved to improve understanding and engagement between city residents and students, won an Excellence Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

A strategic issues white paper on The Economically-Engaged University prepared by the firm of Eva Klein and Associates on behalf of BGSU suggested several opportunities for engagement with external partners to meet mutual needs.

BGSU faculty have formed key partnerships with Behavioral Connections of Wood County.

Faculty members are partnering with colleagues at Owens Community College to improve math achievement among rural students.  

Recent Significant Examples of Community Engagement from BGSU Colleges and Divisions

Elementary school students at the Toledo Academy of Learning are assisted one-on-one with basic math skills by their tutors who are BGSU students in the Academic Investment in Math and Science program. The purposes of the program are to assist needy students with their academic achievements, to provide a positive learning environment through interaction with positive role models such as the AIMS scholars, to encourage students to reach their full potential, and to give college students a challenging venue to give back as they learn and grow.

The annual BGSU Research Conference creates opportunities for collaborative research and external funding. Community leaders representing regional business and industry, government, and institutions of higher education join BGSU faculty, staff and students at the conference where faculty research initiatives are showcased .

The Northwest Ohio Collaborative on Research, Education and Services (CORES) brings together the leaders of BGSU, the Medical College of Ohio, Owens State Community College , and the University of Toledo to establish priorities and identify ways of working together. Through cooperative efforts in research, instruction and service, the institutions focus on increasing efficiencies while maintaining high quality educational opportunities for students and addressing social and economic needs of our communities and the state.

Greening the Campus: Moving BGSU Toward Environmental Sustainability is a consortium of faculty, staff and students who have been working over the past three years to bring environmental sustainability to the University and to our community. As a signatory to the Talloires Declaration, an international plan for sustainability and environmental literacy, BGSU has committed to becoming a societal leader in responding to the challenge of environmental degradation. Opportunities to address these concerns are created through such activities as practica, capstone experiences, and service learning, as well as through interdisciplinary efforts.

Women in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology Day enables seventh and eighth grade girls to explore the many career options available to them through both interactive discussions and activities. Using problem-solving and hands-on experiments, the event provides opportunities to meet positive female role models with a passion for science, math, engineering and technology. The program honors community involvement in educating current seventh- through twelfth-grade girls and potential future BGSU students, and does a great service to the community by seeking to motivate and inspire girls to explore scientific careers.

The College of Arts and Sciences serves the community through a variety of outreach activities. These activities grow out of a sense of professional responsibility to employ scholarship and creative activity to address community needs, as well as from a conviction that outreach provides students with examples of engaged citizenship and affords them rich learning opportunities. Several examples illustrate the College's wide-ranging outreach program:

The major objective of The Center Of Science and Mathematics Education Opportunities for Success (COSMOS) is to enhance math and science education throughout northwest Ohio . This involves modifying teacher preparation programs, providing in-service programs, demonstrating real-world applications of math and science, illustrating inquiry-based lessons, and other activities. The program involves an extensive partnership among regional institutions of higher education; school districts; and community and business partners. The Ohio Board of Regents initially funded COSMOS with $1 million from 2002-2006, and an additional $800,000 has been pledged through 2010.

The School of Art sponsors a Children's Saturday Art Morning which provides approximately 175 children, ages 3-16, art courses taught by undergraduate art education majors. The School also sponsors Young Artists at Work, a summer residential program for at-risk adolescents, and co-sponsors the annual New Music and Arts Festival, which brings contemporary composers and visual artists to campus for a week of programming that is open to the public.

The Department of Biological Sciences operates a Marine Biology Lab and a Herpetarium that offer programs that annually serve 1,500-2,000 K-12 teachers and students as well as members of the general public.

The Center for Photochemical Sciences publishes The Spectrum, a quarterly newsletter that reaches 7,000 photoscientists worldwide.

The Department of Chemistry has received a Northwest Ohio Partnership grant to fund research on alternative energy systems.

The Department of Computer Science receives funding for internships with Cooper Engineering Products.

The History Links program, sponsored by the Departments of History and American Culture Studies, connects grades 4-12 teachers from the Toledo and Fremont Public Schools with BGSU history faculty through a series of Saturday workshops and a week-long summer institute. The program is designed to enhance the quality of history education by introducing social studies teachers to innovative materials, insights and approaches to the learning process. Primary source materials interrelating the social, political and economic elements of change are emphasized in helping students to cultivate critical thinking skills and develop a deeper comprehension of US history. BGSU faculty gain an increased awareness of the K-12 environment from this mutually beneficial interaction that enables them to respond to the specific needs of pre-service teachers in their classes. History Links events are held at the Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont where the library, archives, and museum facilitate activities.

The Department of Journalism is home to the Great Lakes Interscholastic Press Association (GLIPA), an organization that serves high school journalism teachers and students in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. GLIPA sponsors an intensive summer workshop for high school students (with an enrollment of 27-82 students during the last decade), a one-day fall workshop for high school journalists (with a registration ranging from 750-1,500), and a series of competitions for high school journalists.

The Environmental Studies program has sponsored the Portage River Education Project for the past five years. High school students who participate monitor water quality along a nearby stretch of the Portage River and make presentations on their findings at a meeting held in May. The Program has also taken responsibility for a prairie restoration project on 10 acres of BGSU land known as the Woodlot. This project, which involves faculty and students, will create an environmental research site, an outdoor classroom for local schools, a butterfly habitat, and a restored prairie.

The History Department sponsors History Professional Day, an annual one-day workshop for middle school and high school history teachers. Approximately 75 teachers attend this event, participating in sessions designed to keep them abreast of recent developments in the field and provide them with materials and insights they can use in their classrooms.

The Department of History participates in the History Links program, a partnership to teach American History with the Fremont City Schools.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy conducts an ambitious series of public programs in its planetarium. These serve about 4,000 schoolchildren and 4,000 members of the general public annually, making a significant contribution to scientific literacy in Northwest Ohio.

Faculty and graduate students in the Department of Psychology's Institute for Psychological Research and Application help business, government, and non-profit organizations assess and address issues of productivity, safety, and employee attitudes. The Department's Center for Psychological Services draws on clinical students and faculty to provide counseling services to individuals and organizations throughout Northwest Ohio.

The Theater Department's Treehouse Troupe draws on the talent of students and faculty to present workshops as well as two productions annually to elementary, middle, and high school students in twelve Northwest Ohio counties. The Troupe serves approximately fifty schools and 10,000 students each year and offers student participants experience in educational theater as well as the realities of touring, playing multiple roles, and performing in different venues.

The College of Business Administration has created the William and Beverly Dallas and Scott and Tracie Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.  The center was made possible by grants from BGSU alumni and friends as well as from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.  An Entrepreneurship minor program has also been created, which is available to all undergraduate students.  The goals of the Entrepreneurship minor program are to encourage creativity, self-reliance, and a "can do" attitude among business and non-business students through exposure to the entrepreneurship attitude; to build partnerships, networks, and synergies both within BGSU and with external organizations to promote entrepreneurial behavior; to enhance economic development of the state and the region by supporting entrepreneurship through education and outreach initiatives; and to promote an understanding and appreciation of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial organizations throughout the community.

The Institute for Organizational Effectiveness within the College of Business Administration provides expertise in managing and improving organizational performance to business firms, governmental agencies, and not-for-profit organizations.

The Finance Alumni Advisory Council enables faculty to tap into the experiences of our alumni, including increasing the potential of having the alumni return to campus to give presentations and visit classrooms. In addition, the alumni become mentors to our Finance and Financial Economics specialization students.

Participation in the mock trial program enables students interested in issues of law and/or attending law school to hone their skills and examine conflicting values at regional and national competitions and scrimmages. Under the guidance of a faculty advisor from the Department of Legal Studies, students learn rules of procedure, legal issues, and enhance persuasive oral and written skills as they prepare and present an assigned case against competing teams. The program provides excellent opportunities for experiential learning and professional development.

The thirteen member companies of the Supply Chain Management Institute collaborate with BGSU to provide internships, career placement, scholarships, support for faculty development, applied research projects for classes and honors projects, data for faculty research, and guest speakers for classes. The members meet with faculty and students for one-half a day each semester during the Fall Career Expo and the Spring Coop/Internship SCM Employer Night. Research projects and guest speaking occur throughout the year. Companies benefit by ensuring that their future employees have the skill and knowledge they need to function effectively in the workplace.

The Department of Marketing, in cooperation with the Marketing Advisory Council has developed a career mentoring program known as Advance to facilitate interaction between students and community business leaders. Through this program, students shadow an executive or participate in a corporate environment, work as an intern for a business, or engage in a critical examination of their values, their priorities, and their decision making.

The Canadian Studies Center acts as a full-service Canadian information resource, with the primary objective of strengthening business relationships between Ohio and Canadian enterprises. In addition, the Center produces a number of publications on Canadian-Ohio business topics and maintains a library of Canadian business information.

Continuing and Extended Education offers a wide variety of outreach programs. Examples include:

The Arts Unlimited program provides summer credit workshops to K-12 teachers to promote the infusion of aesthetic education throughout the curriculum in an effort to promote teacher professional development and student learning across the curriculum.

The Competitive Advantage Workshop Series is designed to transfer learning and supply effective tools to strengthen local businesses through team building exercises, group processing and experiential learning. As part of Continuing & Extended Education's commitment to a cooperative relationship with business and industry, this program will help community business leaders streamline their organizational strategy and improve their competitive position.

Off-campus Programs conveniently provides undergraduate and graduate credit courses that lead to competency, certification or a degree to students in 25 counties in Northwest Ohio. Off-campus Programs also serves as a partner in support of state and national training grants for teacher and school administrator graduate programs and ongoing professional development. Through distance education, many of these programs will be available throughout the state.

The Computer-Training Center provides computer training and certification for novice and experienced computer users through on-campus classrooms, off-campus facilities in Maumee and Toledo, and web-based delivery.

The BGSU Training Center provides training and development assistance to BGSU offices, private businesses and public agencies throughout northwest Ohio. Through a combination of open enrollment seminars, customized on-site training programs, consultation services, and personal coaching, employers and employees can enhance skills and abilities, job attitudes and workplace effectiveness.

The State of Ohio Fire School (SFS) provides continuing education and professional development opportunities to emergency response professionals across the state of Ohio and the nation. Approximately 40 courses are offered annually to increase the knowledge and technical skill level of 800 emergency response professionals. Many participants have reported specific instances of how their training at the fire school has contributed to saving the lives of the citizens they serve, their co-workers, and their own.

The University has significantly increased its outreach efforts in urban and regional P-12 education. Unique to this undertaking is the firm commitment of all colleges in the university community to assist in the educational process of the region. A number of grant-funded outreach initiatives during this decade have been successful and visible.

The Northwest Ohio Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education trains K-12 teachers and college faculty members and recruits young people, especially those in underrepresented groups, to math and the sciences. It brings together faculty members from BGSU, the University of Toledo, the University of Findlay, Owens Community College, Lourdes College; teachers from 11 counties, college students training to be teachers, public school administrators, educational service centers, community agencies, and business partners. $800,000 has been secured from the Ohio department of Education to date to fund the Center's activities.

The Teacher Quality Enhancement Program of the U.S. Department of Education has awarded a grant of $4.2 million over a five-year period to Bowling Green State University. The ultimate goal of this project is to improve the support and training of teachers in high-need urban schools.

The Martha Gesling Weber Reading Center specializes in outreach programs designed to bring K-12 students and adults with reading difficulties into the reading laboratory for individual diagnosis, assessment, and instruction to improve reading skills and attitudes toward reading.

Project PICT (Preservice Infusion of Computer Technology) has been established in order to enable preservice teachers to fully utilize modern technology for improved learning and achievement in their future classrooms.

Literacy Serve and Learn is a collaborative effort between Bowling Green State University (BGSU) and Toledo Public Schools (TPS) to provide service learning opportunities for BGSU students while they provide instructional support in Toledo elementary schools. Over 1,300 TPS students and more than 850 BGSU students have been involved in this program since its start.

The Toledo Area Partnership in Education: Support Teachers as Resources to Improve Elementary Science (TAPESTRIES), funded at more than $5 million from 1998-2003 by the National Science Foundation, brought faculty members from Education and Human Development together with faculty from Arts and Sciences from both BGSU and The University of Toledo to provide training for public school teachers in Toledo Public and Springfield Local Schools in the use of innovative science curriculum materials.

The Consortium for Innovative Food Science and Nutrition Research (CIFSNR) fosters economic growth and development by providing quality basic and applied research and education expertise to business, industry, academia, and the public sector. Cultivating collaborative relationships with agriculture, food science, and nutrition industries in Northwest Ohio , across the state and nationally, CIFSNR extends the reach and impact of BGSU through research, teaching and service to the community.

BGSU received the largest grant in University history--$4.7 million in September 2000, from the U.S. Department of Education to enable it to participate in GEAR-UP(Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs). GEAR-UP is a major federal education initiative designed to increase the number of students prepared for college by improving instruction, and by increased and intensified after-school tutorials, mentorships and other enrichment programs.

Another funded project is the Partners in Context and Community initiative, which is intended to improve teacher quality. It relies on forming partnerships among the Colleges of Arts and Science, Education and Human Development, Technology, Musical Arts, and Business; a high need urban school system in Toledo, Ohio; and local community agencies and businesses.

The Center for Evaluation Services, within the College of Education and Human Development, provides evaluation services on a local, state, and national level for projects and agencies in the fields of education and human services.

The BGSU College of Education and Human development has formed a partnership with the University of Toledo to develop distance learning programs for on-line math and science education courses.

The College of EDHD also partners with the Ohio Department of Education and with various school districts to improve K-12 academic preparation, and also with the Ohio Board of Regents for programs in the area of science teaching reform.

The Northwest Ohio Regional Collaboration for Teacher Education Articulation is a multi-institutional effort to increase the number of students entering the teaching profession. With special emphasis on subject areas of greatest need (mathematics, science, special education, English as a second language, and foreign languages), the goal is to develop seamless teacher preparation programs through inter-institutional cooperation and transfer agreements. Targeting specific issues through dialog and assessment, faculty members from regional two- and four-year colleges and universities engage in efforts to improve teacher preparation. The resulting collaboration and program articulation across institutions fosters student success and provides communities with highly qualified teachers.

Among its various business and industry training programs, BGSU Firelands' Office for Educational Outreach offers a Business Strategy, Technology, and Operations Program (BusSTOP) designed to help participants increase their knowledge, competency, and understanding of those business concepts used to improve the productivity and profitability of their organizations.

The BGSU Firelands campus is working in partnership with the Ohio Humanities Council, the Huron Chamber of Commerce and other community organizations to host the prestigious Ohio Chautauqua 2005, a major event that will make history come alive for all residents of the region.

The Caryl Crane Children's Theatre (CCCT) makes theatre arts widely accessible through the cooperative efforts of BGSU faculty, staff and students and members of the Huron and Sandusky communities. This program engages children ages 10 to 18 in the holistic concept of theatre and specialized elements of theatre arts. The stated goals of the program are to encourage more participation in children's theatre in the area, to teach children the wonder of the art of theatre, to perform high quality children's plays for the public, and to promote a genuine love for the Theatre.

The Vice Provost for Research has been involved with the Research Officers Council of the Ohio Board of Regents and has participated in the initial efforts to develop program guidelines for the Third Frontier, a state-wide plan to stimulate the knowledge economy in Ohio. The university research community has realized that establishing collaborative regional research cores will be the best way to access state funding for research and technology development.

The Technology Innovation Enhancement (TIE) grants were designed to foster university-industry partnerships in emerging technology areas. One requirement of the grant is to expand industrial interest in intellectual property being developed in the funded project. This is a long-term relationship-building process. Like the other seed-fund efforts, the TIE grants serve the purpose of introducing faculty members to industry and engaging them in strategic planning of their research agendas.

The University has developed collaborative partnerships with the University of Toledo and the Medical College of Ohio to strengthen regional research capabilities and together with Owens Community College to offer workforce training for high- tech businesses. These combined efforts have been recognized by area economic development agencies (the Regional Technology Alliance, the Regional Growth Partnership, and the Wood County Economic Development Commission) as important steps in building a framework for the new economy.

University representatives have participated on the advisory board and the steering committee of the Regional Technology Alliance since its inception in 1999. With the input from key individuals from regional institutions of higher education, business, and industry, the Alliance has made great headway in stimulating collaborative business research and commercialization ventures. The University has been and will continue to be a key player in offering guidance to the Alliance.

The The Center for Regional Development (CRD) is an interdisciplinary research platform with expertise in regional economics and community development. The Center's mission is to design and implement innovative and pragmatic solutions to a wide variety of regional challenges. Community and regional development may be defined as a process whereby the economic, social, cultural, and environmental resources of a region are harnessed for the betterment of the people in that region.

Recent Center activities include an economic study of northwest Ohio's greenhouse industry, a study of the healthy care needs of the region's growing Latino population, and a study of the economic impact of the area's arts community.

BGSU has been chosen as one of the five Ohio partners in a grant-funded project designed to help health-professions schools integrate service learning into their curricula.

Faculty in the College of Health and Human Services have received a $150,000 grant from the state of Ohio to evaluate the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs within Ohio Community organizations.  The project, known as the Ohio HIV Evaluation and Training Program, has the responsibility for helping 41 state-funded community organizations to identify the most effective
prevention programs with specific populations.

The Environmental Health program and the Division of Teaching and Learning have received a seven-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The grant established project EXCITE, which prepares teachers of grades 5-9 to create and use interdisciplinary problem-based teaching tools that focus on environment health issues.

The Environmental Health Program is using a two-year, $49,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Education Fund to training residents of a Toledo neighborhood in cleaning techniques to lower the amount of dust containing lead in and around their homes.  The program began with recruitment of representatives from the Lagrange Development Corp., a privately funded community development group.  Representatives from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department and the Toledo Department of Neighborhoods were also involved.  The state and local health departments are helping provide cleaning supplies for the project, and the neighborhoods department is supplying vacuum cleaners with special, high efficiency particle arresting (HEPA) filters. The intent is to provide a vacuum for every house-a goal the organizers may need to meet with additional support from the business community.  More information is available here .

Awareness of the increasing number of aging persons with Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD) led to the establishment of a cooperative partnership between faculty and students in the Gerontology program at BGSU and staff at the Wood County Board of MR/DD. The overall goal of this partnership was to promote the independence, productivity, community inclusion, and self-determination of older adults with MR/DD through coordinated projects involving program planning, training, technical assistance, and dissemination activities.

The Criminal Justice Organization provides students extracurricular involvement and engagement with the criminal justice system and its agents outside of the traditional classroom setting. Students are invited to participate in discussions with agencies, with each other, and take field trips to various places such as a correctional institution or a courthouse. Through interaction with professionals in the field, students receive advise about preparing for their careers and gain practical experience. The CJO offers students the unique opportunity to compare, contrast, and ultimately integrate their classroom knowledge with real world applications while pursuing their interests. The community connection in this organization provides a beneficial exchange between students, faculty, and agents, which further cultivates the education of our students and the betterment of the communities in which students are and will be involved.

in the existing paragraph: The state and federally-funded Procurement Technical Assistance Center(PTAC) is located in Jerome Library. The BGSU-PTAC office offers workshops for small local and regional businesses to help them market and do business with the public sector. add the link:

The Children's Book Center (CBC) is a joint venture between the Cooperative Services for Children's Literature (CSCL), the Curriculum Resource Center (CRC), Jerome Library and the University Libraries to make high quality, recent children and young-adult books available to Northwest Ohio librarians and educators through a variety of services. Board members represent several regional institutions, including Wood County District Public Library, the University of Toledo , University of Findlay , BGSU, Perrysburg Schools , Bluffton City Schools and Marygrove College.

The Conference on Local History, sponsored by the University Libraries' Center for Archival Collections , provides a forum for interested individuals from northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan to interact with recognized scholars of local history. The multiple purposes of the conference are to inform all practitioners of history in the region about current local history research and publications, provide a place for those in the region to inform others, including university faculty and students, about their efforts to promote local history, assist and encourage secondary school teachers and students to better understand the value of local history, and The Conference on Local History, sponsored by the University Libraries' Center for Archival Collections, provides a forum for interested individuals from northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan to interact with recognized scholars of local history. The multiple purposes of the conference are to inform all practitioners of history in the region about current local history research and publications, provide a place for those in the region to inform others, including university faculty and students, about their efforts to promote local history, assist and encourage secondary school teachers and students to better understand the value of local history, and create opportunities for the public to be involved in the exploration of local history.

The state and federally-funded Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) is located in Jerome Library. The BGSU-PTAC office offers workshops for small local and regional businesses to help them market and do business with the public sector.

Each year over 300 6th grade students and their teachers visit BGSU to create their own news-magazine format TV program, which is broadcast over WBGU-TV. Titled News 6, this joint project of the Northwest Ohio Educational Technology Foundation (NWOET) and WBGU allows students the opportunity to write, videotape and then broadcast stories about their own communities. 2002 marked the 30th season of this award-winning show.

The College of Musical Arts sponsors Music Plus, an enhancement program for central-city students (grades 7-12) from Toledo Public Schools.  Students are brought to campus for private lessons, keyboard class and creativity classes. Volunteer teaching staff for the program includes undergraduate and graduate music students. Many Music Plus students attend college or another form of continuing education after high school education.

Students and faculty in the College of Musical Arts join composers and guest artists from across the nation and around the world to perform new music in the New Music & Art Festival . Over 1,000 submissions are received and approximately 350 works by about 30 composers performed during the three- to four-day event held each fall semester. Many faculty and student ensembles have performed works for other concerts and record works from the New Music Festival. Some leading composers have been inspired to write for BGSU faculty members outside of the festival and frequently become professional contacts for students pursuing graduate studies.

NWOET also sponsors a com petition where students and teachers are invited to campus to demonstrate how they are using technology in the classroom to improve learning. Between 2050 school districts are involved annually.

In partnership with the BGSU Department of Intervention Services, CEISP, the Ohio Department of Education, and other agencies, NWOET offers web-based graduate level professional development for teachers whose K-12 students experience vision, hearing, cognitive or mobility impairments. Over 300 teachers state-wide participate yearly.

The Community Service Learning Program staff administer a program called Step Into Service that identifies community service and volunteer needs in the region that students, student organizations, and others can adopt or participate. Each semester a poster is printed with the community needs with contact information as well as regular notices with additional service needs. Reported Fall 2002 service hours were 13,135.

BG Connection is a meeting, coordinated by the Office of Student Life, comprised of university staff, community and business representatives, and students who meet twice a year or as needed to address and discussion town/gown relationships in relation to student behavior and initiatives that are jointly shared, such as the COPS Program.

The Off-Campus Housing Fair, held annually in December, is designed to bring together students looking for off-campus housing for the next fall with local rental housing agencies and other university, city and county offices. For 2002, 21 local rental agencies and over 300 students participated in the program.

A central mission of the Career Center is to facilitate student and employer contacts. Career days and job fairs enable students to gain valuable career information in an informal setting, make initial contact with employers, and in some cases, interview directly with many employers in a single location. Job fairs emphasize recruiting with some career information, whereas career days emphasize career information with some limited recruiting. Career Services sponsored eight career fairs during 2002-2003 academic year, which were attended by 795 recruiters from 493 organizations.

On-campus recruiting has a long tradition at Bowling Green State University. It is perhaps the most visible program provided by the Career Center, especially for students majoring in business, technology, arts and sciences, and education. On-campus recruiting offers students opportunities to interview with prospective employers from a wide variety of businesses, industries, non-profit organizations, human service agencies, public schools, and government agencies.

On-campus recruitment enables the Career Center staff and University faculty to learn about the market for our graduates, emerging career opportunities, and current economic issues facing business and industry through daily interactions with human resource professionals and managers interviewing on campus. In turn, recruiters and managers gain information about our students, the University, and various academic program offerings. During 2002-2003, approximately 4,800 interviews took place on-campus for post graduation and co-op and internship positions.

The BGSU Children's Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a 32-hour event held to raise money for Mercy Children's Hospital, a partnership of St. Vincent Hospital and the Medical College of Ohio. It is the largest student-run philanthropic organization in the state of Ohio; funds raised have varied from $322,159 in 2003, to $126,240 in 2009.

The Center for Applied Technology has oversight responsibility for all outreach initiatives pursued by the College of Technology. The Center provides technology training, implementation assistance, and new business start-up assistance to business, industry, and the public sector. Through these activities, the Center works to enhance economic growth and market access. Integral components of the Center include the Large Format Digital Imaging Division, the Electric Vehicle Institute, and the Lean Manufacturing Program and the Collaborative for Digital Performance Support. The Center has documented substantial contributions to each of BGSU's strategic future directions. The Center has contracted with several local businesses and industries to provide valuable services that provide students with hands-on experience.  Examples of projects are provided here . 

The Lean Systems program from the Center for Applied Technology (CAT) is engaging with manufacturing companies throughout the region to improve profitability and develop a program of lean manufacturing while teaching how to sustain productivity through employee empowerment. The purpose of the effort is to achieve economic success while improving the quality of life in the region, at the same time teaching our students new and valuable life and technology skills.

Digital Media Students in the Visual Communication Technology, in partnership with the creative director of new media at Case Western Reserve University and virtual reality specialist at the Cleveland Museum of Art, have created a virtual-world replication of the Alamo battlefield.

The University Bookstore has developed an Undergraduate Engagement Scholarship to support students who are involved in community engagement activities.  Faculty members who work with these students will also receive Faculty Involvement funds to support the costs of these projects.