When you visited the University for the first time, you probably were intimidated by the tour guide’s love for BG and overall knowledge of campus. This program has been the same for years, but the tour guides are facing new challenges with the reopening of University and Moseley Halls. With the construction being finished on these two buildings, the recent demolition of West Hall, Family and Consumer Sciences Building, and more building removal in the future, the tour route will be changing.

According to Brittany Scott, coordinator of campus visits, the addition of University and Moseley halls are making the office of admissions more efficient, making the route more centralized in one location and including information sessions and events within a tour.

While many new things are happening in University hall, Allie Hicks, a student tour guide coordinator, says that the route, overall, is not changing drastically.

“Our new office is going to be based out of University, first of all. Mosely is going to be incorporated into the route, which will help us eliminate Health and Human Services, so it’s going to help make our tour route more efficient and a little more centralized. We are also really excited to show off our new spaces as well…like the addition of the Kuhlin Center last year.”

The tour guide program allows students to apply, audition and be employed by the Office of Admissions. Each guided tour lasts about 90 minutes and shows potential students important buildings and aspects of campus.

According to the Office of Admissions website, “…tour guides educate visitors about general pre-admission requirements, academic and campus life, as well as the history, traditions and achievements of the University…”

While the changes are big for admissions, they are used to small changes to the route every year.

“Over the summer, my role is to go through what our visitors need to see, what is the biggest selling point for BGSU, what can we really highlight…of course, there’s always going to be stable locations. We will always need to showcase the student union, we will always need to show a residence hall, dining facilities, obviously classrooms, but thinking through what classrooms could we showcase and is there a new building on campus that we can really highlight? (The tour route) has been changing almost every year because we have had the opportunity here at the University to have construction on campus…” Scott said.

The office of admissions is very excited for the new changes, and hopes that the additions to the tour, such as programs, marketing opportunities and showing potential students more of campus will spark their interests and get more students excited to be a Falcon.

Will there be a different approach to the route?

“So right now, we are still in the process of changing the route, since we are just kind of shifting into this building. It’s kind of the same route, just with a different starting location. We were based out of McFall, just right next door, so it’s not changing too much. Again, the biggest change is going to be that we are getting rid of Health and Human Services on the route now that we will have Moseley to show, so that is going to make everything a little more efficient.”

What is changing in the admissions office/tour guide program?

“Location was the biggest change, in terms of how the programs operated. We aren’t really experiencing any changes in procedure.”

What is your favorite part about being a tour guide, and helping potential falcons decide if they want to attend BG?

“I really like recruiting…I think it’s really cool. I like accessibility a lot in terms of higher education and being a part of the office of admissions has a lot to do with that. It’s really neat to kind of be behind the scenes, so I definitely like getting to have a hand in, not only administrative information for the program and the University, but I also like to get to have one-on-one time with students when we do recruiting events as well.”

What new things will be included in the visit for potential students?

“As campus is still kind of changing with construction, the biggest changes are just going to be that now in these spaces we do have a couple different ways for students to interact with information in this hall; we do have the touchscreen television in the lobby as well, so we have a guide who will direct guests to that, and they can kind of interact with that, hear testimonies from other students that have graduated from the program or have been a part of the program. It has information and quick links as well. Mostly, the ways that we interact with technology are changing…again that kind of goes back with the interest of making sure that everything is really accessible for students and that all the procedures are efficient. In terms of the route itself, again it hasn’t really changed that much, but moving out of this office, I think everything is really much more convenient is the bigger thing.”

How will the opening of University and Mosely affect the tour route?

“So we are really excited. Currently we do not go into University Hall or Moseley. Obviously with our office being in University hall, guests are coming in here, checking in, and their presentation and information session with the counselor is in this location, and then the tour is leaving from this building. Having a lot of high impact programs within this facility allows the tour guides to really highlight those, especially on the first floor as they are leaving for the tour. And then Moseley has a lot of awesome classrooms for our students that are interested in the sciences, so the tour route, beginning September 18th, will begin going through Moseley to help showcase the facilities for the students interested in the science fields.”