Written By: Lauren York TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo Relay for Life is returning to campus on Saturday, Nov. 14, with a space-themed pickleball tournament and other activities at the Recreation Center to raise funds for cancer research and patient care. UToledo’s Relay for Life is a community fundraising event that works with the American Cancer Society, a national health organization dedicated to cancer prevention, research, advocacy, and patient services. All earnings and donations from fundraising and the event go to the American Cancer Society as well as cancer research and cancer patient treatment. There is no registration fee to attend Relay for Life; To enter the pickleball tournament, there is a $20 entry fee per team. With this year’s theme, “Launch Cancer Out of this World,” the tournament will have a 40-team limit with double-elimination play, meaning every team is guaranteed 2 games. The doors will open at 10 a.m., and paddles begin swinging at 11 a.m. “We just want everyone on campus to come out and support,” said Administrative Director for UToledo Relay for Life Ava Heck. “Obviously, it’s a great cause. We are very passionate about it. We want to fight cancer, and we want to see as many people win the fight against cancer that we can.” There are also a few other things happening besides the pickleball tournament, including raffles, survivor lunch, and Luminaria. The survivor lunch offers a space for survivors and affected loved ones to connect. “Survivors are welcome to come and engage with other people who have fought and won a similar fight that they have,” said UToledo Relay for Life External Director Braden Gartee. “It’s a special event for gathering people who have been personally affected by cancer. The Luminaria ceremony is a tradition where participants decorate paper lanterns made from bags and walk around the track with the lights dimmed. People often dedicate their decorated paper lanterns to loved ones that have been lost, or those still battling cancer. “It’s a celebration of people’s fight. We dim the lights, and we walk around the track in honor of people who have fought cancer or lost their lives to cancer,” said Heck. Student organizations can also compete for the annual Relay for Life fundraising trophy, which is given to the group that raises the most donations. Organizers are also conducting can drives on and off to help with fundraising efforts. Students can sign up for the tournament by searching “Relay for Life UToledo” online or by visiting the group’s Instagram page, @relayforlifeutoledo. If anyone is interested in donating or learning more about the cause, click on the link tree below. @relayforlifeutoledo Official: Instagram | Linktree

By: Connor Barrus TOLEDO, OH - Toledo Rockets football celebrated homecoming hosting Buffalo in the second game of MAC play, looking to extend their 9-game home win streak, but it wasn’t to be as the Rockets fell to the Bulls, 23-8. The Rockets struggled early on, being shutout 13-0. It marks the first time since 2017 the Rockets were shutout in a half when they faced Appalachian State. Toledo only managed 108 yards and four first downs. Penalties didn’t help either as they were flagged ten times times in the half Buffalo led after the first quarter by field goals from Oskari Hautanen and scored a 3-yard touchdown from QB Jason Wright. Toledo’s offensive line huddles for a play against Buffalo. HOMECOMING KING & QUEEN The University of Toledo announced their 2026 Homecoming King and Queen as the King was selected to be Youg Rata and the Queen was selected to be Anushkaa Paati. Toledo would finally strike late in fourth quarter off a 1-yard touchdown rush from RB Connor Walendzak, followed by a two point conversion catch from WR Adjatay Dabbs. Toledo WR Adjatay Dabbs celebrates after catching a two-point conversion pass The Rockets were led by Walendzak with 50 rushing yards and one touchdown, as WR Terrell Crosby Jr. had 69 receiving yards. Buffalo was led by RB Messiah Burch with 137 rushing yards off of 17 carries and a touchdown. Toledo falls to 4-2 overall, 1-1 in MAC play, as the Rockets look to get back on track against Eastern Michigan on October 17th.

By: Benjamin Rupp Do you know where the beloved mascots of the University of Toledo come from? Rocky and Rocksy have been a huge part of our school culture dating back all the way to 1966. Rocky was the first of the mascot duo, created by the University’s Spirits and Traditions Committee. Made from a jumpsuit and papier-mâché, the first-ever version of Rocky the Rocket was born. Image from UToledo Two years later, the first Rocky was retired and replaced with a new version of the mascot. (colorized photo of 2nd generation Rocky the Rocket) . A number of different jumpsuits and metal helmets were used for the mascot until 1977. Outfitted with legendary bell-bottom pants and an authentic space helmet and boots courtesy of NASA, Rocky rocked on in this new attire all the way until 1983. Image from UToledo In 1983, a new era of Rocky the Rocket emerged with a more plush “huggable design.” The first of the new generation of Rocky was known as plush, with huge feet, until an alteration in 1986, when an updated smaller version was released. In 1998, a new, more dapper version of Rocky the Rocket Man appeared. Sporting a new jetpack, Rocky ushered in a new era as the old mascot retired, riding away in a limousine Image taken by Ben Rupp for the Collegian The inflatable Rocky the Rocket was created in 2002 alongside the “Rocket Man” Rocky. This inflatable design was then updated in 2008 to the current version we all know and love today. Rocky’s adorable sidekick, Rocksy the Rockette, was the most recent mascot addition, introduced not long ago during MusicFest 2011.

By: Laila Mychelle TOLEDO, Ohio - Campus Prayer Connect is a campus club that connects believers in Christ through prayer. The group started in Fall 2024, founded by James Elrod; he saw a need for a designated prayer group on campus and decided to start one. Current president Isaac Clingman remarked that it is important for Christians on campus to have a space to come and pray. “Prayer is powerful, and we want to give that gift to other people as well, like you don’t have to go through your struggles by yourself.” Clingman said. The organization also goes out and prays for students on Campus. Treasurer Kyle Arndt remarked that they want to be a positive part of campus life. “Just like create a space once a week where students or whoever can come and pray and fellowship, and to also pray around campus to be a light, even if it’s a short while,” Arndt states. The group believes that it is important to have a group like this on campus to make prayer easier for students seeking that and to stay faithful to their beliefs. “I feel like people sometimes overcomplicate prayer and think that it has to be this formal thing, but it’s, yeah, I think it’s a lot simpler than that.” Clingman says, “It’s just speaking to God and just trying to, yeah, be in a personal relationship.” “The Bible talks about carrying each other's burdens for people, so if we can just be somebody who’s listening or hear what someone is going through, then I think that accomplishes our goal,” Arndt added Campus Prayer Connect meets every Thursday at 3 pm in the Lounge next to TruBurger. Students looking to get involved can find them on Instagram and on Invonet.

Photos taken by Megan Matthews Written By: Megan Matthews TOLEDO, Ohio – The Student Green Fund and Greening UToledo Through Service (GUTS) have taken many steps to create a more sustainable environment for students. The Student Green Fund is an organization on campus that provides funding for sustainability projects all across campus, while also allowing students to have a voice in change. “Our goals are to create a more sustainable campus and to allow students to have a voice in how their money is used,” said Senior Project Manager Lizzy Hill. The Student Green Fund is funded by a five-dollar tuition fee that students are able to opt out of. With that money, they are able to finance and carry out multiple sustainability projects across the two campuses. “With those five dollars we fund sustainable projects right here on campus that are all student-run and student-developed,” said Student Green Fund President Kaela Bartley. Students are able to create proposals and apply for funding through the Student Green Fund to get their projects approved. Once the proposal has been looked at and voted upon, the funds are then allocated to the project leader to begin work. “I want to spend the Student Green Fund money on projects that are going to do the most good for the most students,” said Hill. The Student Green Fund has funded many projects throughout the years, including a solar panel array at the Health Science Campus, a YSI probe, and a new solar-powered composting project by the Student Union, said Bartley. The Student Green Fund not only helps with sustainability on campus, but also helps people in the community. “The compost we collect goes back to an urban farmer named Thomas, and he uses it on his farm field,” said Bartley. With the success of the solar panels on the Health Science Campus, there is also a push to continue installing these arrays across campus. “By the time I retire, I hope to see the corner of Douglas covered in solar,” said professor and advisor of GUTS, Todd Crail. Along with the Student Green Fund, there is also the student organization GUTS, a service-based learning organization. “What I like about GUTS is the students have helped us get to the point where we had done enough that the administration was paying attention to it,” said Crail. GUTS is responsible for organizing multiple outings to remove invasive plants and species around campus, such as Tree-of-heaven and lanternflies. They are also responsible for the 26 native plant gardens around campus, which also serve as learning opportunities on campus. “A lot of those native plantings are representative of native ecosystems around the area, such that each one of them becomes its own classroom,” said Crail. Sustainability on Toledo's campus can also be helped by the general actions of the students and faculty. Walking to class, carpooling, or owning a reusable water bottle are simple sustainable choices that can be made. Other sustainable choices revolve around technology usage, such as artificial intelligence. “AI is a growing resource and tool, but there is a ton we don't still know about it, and until it becomes a more viable option for our environment and for our own lives, try to use it sparingly,” said Hill. Sustainability can also be difficult when the cheap and easy choice is the unsustainable option. “For most of the students here, in a lot of ways, sustainability is really about being affluent enough to have choices,” said Crail.

Curated by: The Collegian Staff Homecoming is a time for family, friends, and alumni to reminisce on their time at the University of Toledo. Have you ever wondered what life was like on campus back then, and how different it was compared to today? To kick off Homecoming, here's a look at what UToledo news was like decades ago through previous stories published by The Collegian.

Photos taken by Ray Wisda Written By: Ray Wisda TOLEDO, Ohio – Students returning to campus this fall have likely noticed construction activity inside the Student Union and along Stadium Drive near the Student Recreation Center. While the projects serve different purposes, university officials say both are designed to improve campus facilities and support future student needs. Inside the Student Union, renovations are underway on the first floor as part of the university’s long-term initiative. The project includes a larger student lounge and gaming area, updated student organization spaces, a renovated office suite for the Dean of Students, and additional open lounge areas. A major feature of the renovation is a circulation improvement connecting the corridor outside Chick-fil-A and Tru Burger to the atrium near Frogtown and the switchback ramp. University officials say the goal is to create a more accessible and connected space for students. The project began shortly after Spring Commencement and is scheduled to be completed before the start of the spring semester. University officials stated that parking and pedestrian access have not been significantly affected by the construction in the Student Union. Dining locations and other businesses within the building have remained open throughout construction. Temporary partitions have been installed around the work area to maintain safety. According to the university, no safety issues or complaints have been reported during the renovation process. Near the Recreation Center, a separate construction project is focused on upgrading critical underground utility infrastructure. Crews are installing an at-grade utility tunnel beneath the sidewalk on the east side of Stadium Drive, stretching from the entrance of Lot 5 to the Recreation Center. The new tunnel will house steam and condensate lines connected to the university’s heating system. Workers are also installing chilled water supply and return lines that support the campus cooling system. University officials said the utility lines have experienced multiple failures in recent years, making upgrades necessary. Reliability improvements were a major factor in launching the project. Construction on Stadium Drive has caused temporary traffic adjustments throughout the semester; however, officials expect the road to return to normal two-way traffic soon, with final paving work scheduled during fall break. Funding for the project came from the second tranche of capital improvements approved by the Board of Trustees in September 2025 as part of the university’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan. Full completion is expected between late October and mid-November. Although students may not notice many visible changes once work is finished, university officials say the upgraded infrastructure will provide more reliable heating and cooling services to most campus buildings. The Student Union renovations are expected to deliver new gathering spaces, improved traffic flow, and additional resources for students when they are unveiled in January.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist Written By: Juan Drown Thomas L. Friedman, three-time Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times, spoke Thursday evening for the Fall 2026 Edward Shapiro Distinguished Lecture series hosted in Nitschke Hall; the lecture was titled, “The Big Trends Shaping the World Today: Economics, Technology, and Geopolitics”. Friedman has served as The New York Times’ foreign affairs Opinion columnist for 31 years, originally starting out as a reporter, he’s been with the paper since 1981. Friedman won his first two Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting (in 1983 and 1988). His third was won in 2002 for his commentary on the aftermath of 9/11. Friedman is also the author of 7 books including From Beirut to Jerusalem, a National Book Award winner, The World is Flat, and his most recent work Thank You for Being Late. His work generally covers foreign affairs, in particular the Middle East, globalization, which he refers to as “the market”, and environmental issues. In the introduction of his lecture, Friedman revealed that he is working on his 8th book, We: We’re All In It Now Together. Before he could finish his story on how he developed the title, Friedman was interrupted by at least 3 protestors inside the auditorium. Friedman remained largely silent on the stage as the protestors were escorted out. After joking a little with the audience over his welcome to Toledo, he resumed his talk. Friedman’s talk served as a teaser for his new book as he walked through the general topics covered in it. He devoted a chunk of his speech to explaining what he calls, “The Second Big Bang.” To Friedman, this concept refers to both technological achievements made by humans in the last 50 years and environmental impacts made by humans too. His main contention with this is that “we have become godlike” as a species. The issue Friedman leaves the audience to grapple with is how these “godlike powers” can be managed. The rest of his talk follows his belief in how this can be regulated, looking through the lens of community, and finding a “sacred realm” where all people can make decisions based upon a common good. Throughout the talk, Friedman uses analogies to take complex issues and simplifies the issues for a layman. One analogy showed up more frequent in his talk than any other, which was the mangrove. A picture of a mangrove was presented on stage as he explained the several niche roles that a mangrove serves, such as a filter, a buffer for storms, keeping shore intact, etc. He contends that in society, these symbolic mangroves have been lost, which is causing the discord that is seen. The central mangrove for Friedman is a neighborly community; he uses the example of Minnesotans protesting the ICE raids that were ongoing in Minnesota. “Minnesota coined a verb, neighborly. I am my neighbor’s keeper”, Friedman said in praise of Minnesotans’ community spirit. He sees this moment as a model that the rest of the U.S. should take on to present a model of neighborly on the global stage. Friedman relates the phenomena of globalization as being the cause of humanity becoming a fated community, one in which “we will rise, then we will fall together.” He uses this to segue into his stance that China and the U.S. should collaborate together on AI. He referred to a column he is working on, in which he intends to call upon President Trump and President Xi of China to put aside all other topics and discuss international management of AI. In his closing remarks, Friedman stressed once again the idea of a human mangrove and the overall feeling of people being tired of being divided. After his lecture concluded, copies of The World is Flat were available for purchase. Student presence at the event was minimal, largely taking the form of volunteers for the event. One such volunteer was freshman Marquis Gibbs. For Gibbs, the two highlights of the talk were Friedman’s lack of response to the protestors in the auditorium and the prevalence of AI. “How important to the entire world and how him [Friedman] being on like the tip of the iceberg [of technological developments] has not only helped prepare him for that, but also to share with what is actually happening”, Gibbs said on Friedman’s role as a journalist in educating the public. For Gibbs, Friedman’s most effective analogy was the mangrove. Friedman argued that both authors and community members must act similar to mangroves to connect people. “If we don’t try and be the bridge, then we’ll never unite.” Gibbs recalled.

Photos taken by LaNyiah Gilbert and Brandon N-G Written By: Lauren York, LaNyiah Gilbert, Brandon N-G TOLEDO, Ohio – Students gathered at Nitschke Hall Auditorium at the University of Toledo on Thursday evening to protest a lecture by New York Times foreign affairs columnist and author Thomas Friedman. The event took place during the university’s annual Edward Shapiro Distinguished Lecture Series, where Friedman was scheduled to deliver a lecture on global trends in economics, technology, and geopolitics. Students for Justice in Palestine (UTSJP) expressed strong opposition to Friedman’s past foreign policy writings on Middle Eastern affairs. Friedman has received criticism for his commentary on the region, including a 2024 column that received public backlash for comparing the Middle Eastern nations and political factions to insects in a jungle. Protesters gathered outside the building before moving inside; taking seats throughout the auditorium. Once Friedman began his presentation, the protesters began coordinated interruptions one after another. A member from UTSJP stood up, held a sign, and began shouting directly at the stage. Campus police intervened and escorted the student out of the auditorium. Friedman resumed his lecture, only to be interrupted again a moment later by another student doing the same thing. Each time only stopping after police interference. According to multiple protesters, police officers informed them that the next person who stood up with intention to interrupt the event would be leaving the building in handcuffs. There were no further verbal disruptions following this warning. The remaining protesters quietly exited the building shortly afterwards. Student protesters insisted on anonymity and did not want to be identified out of concern for potential legal action. The motivation to join the protest for some was personal. Many citing family ties and personal losses related to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East drove them to speak out. The overall goal was to present university officials and those attending the lecture with a different perspective on Middle Eastern foreign policies.

By: Anthony Nassar Photo taken of mural painted by Liam Ginter on the first floor of the Carlson library - Anthony Nassar for the Collegian TOLEDO, Ohio — Greening UToledo Through Service Learning (GUTS) held a Student Sustainability Summit, showcasing two students’ creative projects and other sustainability-themed posters, last Thursday at the Carlson Library. The event aimed to highlight how students from any field can get involved with on-campus initiatives. GUTS has helped the University of Toledo become a more biodiverse environment, with student volunteers involved in the process. Carlson Library Director of Operations Dave Remarklus said that over 600,000 people have walked past gardens created by GUTS. Student Caleb Thompson took the stage to screen his short film about the organization, “It Takes GUTS,” highlighting GUTS' impact on campus thus far. The film featured interviews with multiple members of the organization, along with b-roll footage showing the work behind the projects. “Films bring people together and transcend time,” Thompson said. “Like the gardens, you may plant a seed as a senior and never see it grow, but you know that the impact continues to persist.” Thompson said he was motivated to create the film as he believed the organization was underrated and wanted to show the importance of GUTS to the community. Former student Liam Ginter showcased his Native Plant mural designed for the library. The mural features a lush landscape with various native plants. The mural’s makeup is acrylic paint, and Ginter aims to maintain the illusion of 3D within a 2D wall while also keeping an emotional space that allows for depth and creativity. “The thing I want people to walk away with is a feeling,” Ginter said. “I think that people are disconnected from the world, so I think feeling something from this is important.” Ginter said he encourages students to join the GUTS program and expresses his gratitude to the Carlson Library for allowing art like this to be created. Project Manager Todd Crail said there are many different facets to solving our current environmental crisis. He hopes to leverage the momentum of these gardens to show that multiple departments can get involved and participate. Crail encourages students and faculty to get started immediately and begin making an impact. “GUTS showcases the hidden work of campus, which has been great exposure for the students,” Crail said. “The guy who cuts the grass and the person who answers the phone are the two most important people in any organization.”