A brand new fall

When first-year students moved onto campus Aug. 22, they could feel additional wind under their Flyer wings. They are the first class to build a Flight Crew, a personalized group of peers, faculty and staff to support and challenge students to reach their full potential, with their holistic academic advisors guiding their journeys.

The Flight Crew provides tools and resources needed to educate the whole person. This includes student health and wellbeing, academic support, spiritual growth, campus involvement and exploration of vocations. The Flight Crew is one initiative of UD’s new success model that focuses on a student’s learning and growth — signified by the stages walk, run, fly and soar — through four years of college.

“People on campus really want to help us all. It made me feel more comfortable about my college experience."

During New Student Orientation this summer, attendees shared the most important thing they had learned. “People on campus really want to help us all,” wrote a first-year student. “It made me feel more comfortable about my college experience.”

Members of the Class of 2029 and beyond are also guaranteed an immersive, high-impact, mentored learning experience. While hands-on learning has long been a hallmark of a UD education, the new requirement will ensure every student has an experiential learning opportunity that allows them to reflect on and apply the knowledge gained.

This fall brings the addition of undergraduate co-majors. A co-major is an area of advanced specialized study on top of knowledge gained from a primary major in a core discipline.

UD’s first co-majors are in the high-demand fields of neuroscience, bioengineering, semiconductor manufacturing engineering, materials engineering and mechatronics systems automation.

“Having the core discipline indicates a graduate has a specific type of expertise and the readiness to specifically apply that to, for example, bioengineering applications,” said Kim Bigelow, professor and director of the Engineering Wellness Through Biomechanics Lab. “It’s the best of both worlds.”

And while there’s a lot that’s new this fall, some things rarely change. All students returned to a campus The Princeton Review ranks among the best student life in the nation, including top 25 in the categories of campus food, students who love their school teams, college dorms and happiest students.

Sounds like the perfect launchpad.

A version of this article appears in print in the Fall 2025 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 11. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE