The Dean’s Club Symposium of the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences will celebrate the life of George Isaac who was a generous supporter of medical education in the community.

The event will be 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16 in the George Isaac Minimally Invasive Surgery Center.

“We lost a true champion of the University’s mission earlier this year when George Isaac died,” said Dr. Christopher Cooper, senior vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences. “During his 91 years on this earth, George was a generous and involved community leader.”

George Isaac and his son, Zac, posed for a photo in 2006 when the George Isaac Minimally Invasive Surgery Center was dedicated at UT Medical Center.

In a show of support for the 2006 merger between UT and the former Medical College of Ohio, Isaac donated $1 million for the new George Isaac Minimally Invasive Surgery Center. A previous $1 million donation supported the Isaac Chair in Cancer Research, the George Isaac Scholarship in Occupational Therapy and the Isaac Presidential Scholarship.

His dedication to medical education in our community also included serving on the MCO Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1996, serving as chair from 1991 to 1996. Isaac also was a past member of the MUO Foundation Board of Trustees.

The Dean’s Club Symposium event also will award the Adela and Alfred Mundt Endowed Professorship in Transplantation Cardiology to Dr. Samer Khouri, professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Khouri’s area of expertise is the diagnosis of diastolic heart failure and pulmonary hypertension, and the interaction between the kidney and the heart.

The Mundt family are longtime supporters of the University with the 2008 creation of the Mundt Cardiology Endowment Fund.

Other endowed faculty positions created by philanthropy to be recognized at the symposium are:

•  Clair Martig Endowed Chair in Neurology
•  Edmund Vickroy Collins Endowed Professorship in the Department of Pediatrics
•  Frank D. Stranahan Endowed Chair for Oncological Research
•  Frederick W. Hiss Endowed Professorship in Diabetes Research
•  George Isaac Endowed Chair in Cancer Research
•  Helen and Harold McMaster Endowed Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
•  John M. Howard Endowed Professorship of Pancreatic Surgery
•  John T. Schaeufele Endowed Professorship in Pediatrics
•  Kenneth A. Kropp, M.D. Endowed Professorship of Urology
•  Medical College of Ohio Alumni Endowed Chair in Surgery
•  Mercy Health System Chair of Excellence in Education
•  Rita T. Sheely Endowed Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology
•  Robert A. Stranahan Chair in Microbiology and Immunology
•  S. Amjad Hussain M.D. Endowed Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery
•  University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences Endowed Professorship in Nephrology

Also at the event, the 2015 Ashel Bryan Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Peter and Nanette Ryerson for their efforts to advance the health and well-being of the region. Peter Ryerson is the president of Ryerson Management Associates, a national healthcare management consulting firm. He served as a board member of the Medical College of Ohio Foundation from 1994 to 2005 and is currently a member of the UTMC Advisory Council.

The Dean’s Club was established to help ?the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences and UTMC meet its mission of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Gifts from members provide essential funds for scholarships, faculty research support? and other innovative programs.

For several years, The University of Toledo Foundation has been working to identify a new property to engage University stakeholders and replace the Levis House at 3883 Bancroft St.

“We have been working for some time to identify a new presidential residence better suited to donor cultivation and engagement as UT’s emphasis on private fundraising for student scholarships, faculty endowments and capital projects has continued to increase,” said Brenda Lee, president of the UT Foundation.

On Wednesday, the UT Foundation announced it had closed on a purchase of a home at 2646 Forestvale Road in Ottawa Hills that Foundation officials said would meet the strategic philanthropic needs of the University.

Emphasizing that all money in the transaction comes from private funds, Lee said the new home has recently been updated and offers an open floor plan for receptions that would have been cost-prohibitive to create through a renovation of the Levis House.

Matt Schroeder, chief operating officer for the Foundation, said that the UT Foundation had closed on the Forestvale home for $922,000. The Levis House was appraised earlier this year at $835,000, and the plan will be to prepare the house for sale in the coming months, he said.

By comparison, other peer universities such as Bowling Green State University, Youngstown State, Eastern Michigan University and Akron University have invested between $1.2 and $4.5 million in presidential residences.

“We’re very pleased to continue to have the presidential residence in the Village of Ottawa Hills. The village has always been a good neighbor for The University of Toledo and we’re committed to being a good neighbor on Forestvale Road and to all Ottawa Hills residents,” Schroeder said.

Lee and Schroeder both said that while the timing was fortuitous given the presidential transition, the purchase of a new residence was a function of the ongoing search to identify the right home in the market for the University’s needs.

“The funding model of higher education is changing,” Lee said. “Universities are relying more and more on philanthropic support.

“The investment of private dollars into this home will create for UT a venue where support from donors will provide additional resources for UT students, faculty, patients and researchers that taxpayer funding cannot currently accommodate. And it is these investments that will help raise UT’s profile in the region and across the nation.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 16, 2015)
The Blade (April 22, 2015)
The Independent Collegian (April 29, 2015)

The fifth floor of the Raymon H. Mulford Library at The University of Toledo is now a celebration of humanity with powerful portraits painted by Michigan artist Paul Collins.

The John W. & Betty Jane Barfield Exhibit features pieces inspired by people from all over the world that give a glimpse into the different cultures reflected in the University’s community. The collection is a donation from Michigan entrepreneur John Barfield who founded The Bartech Group staffing and workforce management company based in Southfield, Mich.

“We embrace diversity here at UT and this exhibit compliments that philosophy,” said Marcie Ferguson, director of corporate relations, operations and initiatives, who has organized the installation efforts for the collection.

A ribbon-cutting and reception for the collection will be 4-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28. Barfield, UT Interim President Nagi Naganathan and President Emeritus Lloyd Jacobs will make remarks and Collins will be in attendance.

Barfield, who began his career as a janitor at the University of Michigan before starting his own cleaning company that evolved into the Bartech Group of today that employs and manages the daily work assignments for more than 35,000 associates and more than $3 billion in contingent labor for major employers around the world, began collecting Collins’ work in 1975.

“The life story of John Barfield is inspiring to all,” said Chuck Lehnert, vice president for corporate relations. ?”And he always remembers to keep the important things first and in order: faith, family and friends.”

Barfield had commissioned Collins to create works for his company offices. The artist went to Harlem and returned with 19 sketches that blew Barfield away. He later sponsored Collins’ trip to Kenya and Tanzania to paint the Maasai people and preserve a dying culture. Pieces from each trip are now part of the UT collection.

Collins, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., is credited with more than 100 exhibitions around the world, including “Great Beautiful Black Women” recognizing history makers such as Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks and “America at Work” showcasing the American worker’s contributions to the country and its success.

His mural of President Gerald R. Ford is on display in the Gerald R. Ford International Airport and he also created the Ford Museum Commemorative Poster for the opening of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

Barfield donated his collection of Collins’ works to the Charles H. Wright African American Museum in Detroit. When he showed the collection to then UT President Jacobs, who he was introduced to by Dr. Nina McClelland, who was dean of the UT College of Arts and Sciences at the time, they discussed putting it on display at UT.

Juanita Moore, president and CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Museum, agreed to permanently loan the collection to UT and it is now on display on the Health Science Campus.

“I’m glad that we were able to keep this art intact, first by giving it to the museum and now by having it at the University,” Barfield said. “We’re very excited to see the unveiling of it.”

To RSVP to the event, submit the online reservation form at utoledo.edu/offices/president/barfield-exhibit-opening by April 22.

Media Coverage
The Blade (May 14, 2015)

Ken Kilbert, associate dean for academic affairs and professor at The University of Toledo College of Law, and director of the College’s Legal Institute of the Great Lakes, will unveil a report he co-authored that addresses the legal tools available to combat Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms on Wednesday, April 15, at 9:30 a.m. at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo.

The report, “Moving Forward: Legal Solutions to Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Blooms,” identifies legal tools available under Ohio and federal law. It was jointly authored by Professor Kilbert and Jack Tuholske, a visiting professor at Vermont Law School and the University of Montana Law School, and director of the Vermont Law School Water & Justice Program. Kilbert, Tuholske and Lucas County Commissioner Carol Contrada will be on hand to discuss the report’s recommendations.

Contact Rachel Phipps at 419.530.2628 to schedule an interview with Professor Kilbert.

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 15, 2015)
Toledo Free Press (April 15, 2015)
The Blade (April 16, 2015)
WTOL 11 (April 16, 2015)
WTOL 11 (April 20, 2015)
The Blade (April 25, 2015)

Barbara Floyd will discuss her book, The Glass City: Toledo and the Industry That Built It, Thursday, April 16, at 4 p.m. in Carlson Library’s Ward M. Canaday Center of Special Collections at The University of Toledo.

Floyd, director of the Canaday Center and university archivist, spent one year piecing together the history of the business that led to Toledo’s nickname.

In The Glass City, she follows the first fledgling company that fired up furnaces in 1888 to the triumphant reign of three powerhouses — Owens-Illinois Inc., Libbey-Owens-Ford Co. and Owens Corning Corp. — that made the town the world leader in glass production, to when that supremacy started to shatter.

“I came away from this project with a new-found appreciation for how unique Toledo was in its industrial history — the way the city produced some of the most important developments and technological innovations in industrial history,” Floyd said. “Toledo companies invented the automatic bottle machine, Fiberglas, insulated glass, safety glass for automobiles, structural glass that made skyscrapers possible, glass-composite products and many others.

“In addition, the people who developed new techniques for industrial glass also helped to create the studio glass movement that produced beautiful works of art made of glass.”

The Canaday Center houses records of Libbey-Owens-Ford, Owens-Illinois and Owens Corning, the producers of window glass, bottles and Fiberglas, respectively.

“These collections represent the most important documentation of industrial glass in the country,” she said.

For the 262-page work published by the University of Michigan Press, Floyd also conducted research at the Toledo Museum of Art, the West Virginia Museum of American Glass, the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.

“Toledo glass has changed the world. And most significantly, the industry made the city what it is today,” the UT alumna said. “While the glass industry may play a smaller role in Toledo now, the history between the city and the industry should not be forgotten.”

Her free, public talk is part of University Libraries’ celebration of National Library Week and is co-sponsored by the UT History Department.

She will sign copies of her book, which will be for sale for $30 during a reception after the event.

For more information, contact Floyd at 419.530.2170 or barbara.floyd@utoledo.edu.

Nearly 300 students from 10 universities throughout Ohio and Michigan will participate in the 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers North Central Student Conference this weekend, at The University of Toledo and Maumee Bay State Park.

Hosted by the UT American Society of Civil Engineers Student Chapter, the conference will include concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions.

“This conference is a great opportunity for our chapter to highlight UT and the greater Toledo area while showcasing the accomplishments of all of the students,” Katie Burns, UT senior majoring in civil engineering senior and conference chair, said.

The steel bridge competition will be held Friday, April 10, until 6:30 p.m. in Savage Arena.

Concrete canoe races will take place at Maumee Bay State Park’s inland lake Saturday, April 11, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The countless hours put into the design, construction and display of the concrete canoes and steel bridges just amazes me,” she added. “It is absolutely amazing to see the final products that the students produce, since they create something that is not only functional, but is also a piece of art.”

For more information on the free, public events, contact Burns at katie.burns@rockets.utoledo.edu or at 330.591.7900.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (April 15, 2015)

The University of Toledo will host the presidents of higher education institutions from across northwest Ohio to sign a memorandum of understanding that will create a consortium aimed at making college more affordable for students and families.

The signing will take place at 11:30 a.m., Thursday, April 9 in The University of Toledo President’s Office Room 3500 in University Hall.

The agreement, including universities and community colleges, will coordinate and identify efficiencies across academic, financial and administrative operations and ensure regional workforce development while building on existing initiatives already under way between regional higher education institutions.

The consortium is also in keeping with calls from state leaders to prioritize affordability and efficiency in higher education while ensuring education quality remains strong.

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 9, 2015)
13 ABC and NBC 24 (April 10, 2015)

The University of Toledo Sexual Assault Education and Prevention Program (SAEPP) has several events scheduled in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

***Photo Opportunity***
The Clothesline Project, a way for women affected by violence to express their emotions and share their experiences by decorating T-shirts, will be on display 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 9 in UT’s Centennial Mall.

The project also will be on display 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Thursday, April 16 in the cafeteria at The University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC).

Other events for the month, listed by date, include:

Sunday, April 12
•  Denim Day Walk/Run, 9 a.m. – noon, UTMC

Saturday, April 18
•  Take Back the Night, 6 p.m., UAW Union, Ashland Avenue

Thursday, April 23
•  LGBTQ Panel, 6-7 p.m., UT Student Union Room 2584

Wednesday, April 29
•  Denim Awareness Day display, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., UT Student Union

For more information about UT SAEPP and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, visit utoledo.edu/studentaffairs/saepp or facebook.com/SAEPPUT.

Media Coverage
13 ABC, FOX Toledo and NBC 24 (April 10, 2015)
WTOL 11 (April 10, 2015)
The Blade (April 10, 2015)

University of Toledo Health continues to expand in the local community with the addition of its first off-campus physical therapy and sports medicine office, located at the Regency Medical Campus.

To celebrate the addition of this new office, UT Health will host a ribbon cutting and grand opening Friday, April 10, at 12:15 p.m.

With a focus on sports medicine, UT Health Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine at Regency primarily cares for K-12 and college athletes, though patients of all ages and fitness levels are welcome. This office offers a convenient schedule, including early morning, evening and Saturday hours.

“Our office serves nine high schools in the Toledo area, making it an important part of the community,” said Dr. Patrick Siparsky, orthopedics and sports medicine physician and UT assistant professor of orthopedics. “Our hours make it very convenient for students to come in early before school or for adults to come in later after work.”

This office joins the other services UT Health offers at Regency, including orthopedics, primary care, cardiology, neurology and urology.

“It’s really great that we’re expanding and offering a convenient location to our patients,” said Marci Cancic, lead physical therapist at UT Health Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine at Regency. “Our patients love that they can schedule their orthopedic and physical therapy appointments back to back and that they’re in the same building without having to go to the hospital.”

Regency Medical Campus is located off Talmadge Road near Franklin Park Mall at 1000 Regency Court, Toledo. Hours for UT Health Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine at Regency are Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.

For more information, call 419.383.2733.

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 9, 2015)
NBC 24 and 13 ABC (April 13, 2015)

Holi Toledo is a campus-wide event for the Hindu religious festival Holi — a celebration known for the color thrown into the air to celebrate the coming of spring. On Wednesday, April 15, from 3 to 5 p.m. on the lawn of The University of Toledo’s Memorial Field House. Students will have the chance to participate in the event by throwing color at each other. (Please note date change from original April 8 to rain date of April 15.)

“For us, the colors represent diversity — and in particular the diversity of religious and cultural perspectives at the heart of our Holi event,” said Dr. Jeanine Diller, director of the UT Center for Religious Understanding.

Various booths, each hosted by a different student organization, will offer visitors a different colored powder. There will be powder blasts throughout the event where everyone will throw their color into the air at the same time, similar to the actual holiday in India.

It is recommended that attendees wear clothes that can be stained; while the color is water soluble, it is not guaranteed to wash out.

In addition to the color and booths, Indian music and dancers will be featured.

Diller said that last year’s Holi Toledo was reportedly one of the most popular diversity events at the University to date.

“We understood from the diversity staff that this was one of the best diversity events UT has ever had, given the number of attendees and degree of mixing at the event,” she said. “We also heard that international students felt very at home and welcomed at UT as a result of this event — a result I hadn’t predicted. And there were some meaningful exchanges going on at the tables; one person told me they talked for over a half hour with someone who had a different perspective on religion.”

With more than 400 people in attendance last year, Diller said she expects this year’s event to be even bigger.
This event is sponsored by the UT Center for International Studies and Programs, UT Indian Students Cultural Association, UT Center for Religious Understanding, UT Office of Student Involvement, UT Office of Equity and Diversity, Toledo Community Foundation and the President’s Lecture Series on Diversity.

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 11, 2015)
The Blade (April 16, 2015)