On the Kreischer side of the red and green Conklin basketball courts, freshmen were encouraged to forget the pressure their first day of class. They were invited to join others from the campus and community for food, music, and fun at the third annual Back 2 School Explosion, yesterday evening.

This year’s festivities were sponsored by the Center for Multicultural and Academic Initiative, Pepsi, and Project Excellence. Napoleon Bradford, the executive director of Project Excellence a tutoring and mentoring program that pairs at risk students from Toledo with University students ‘#173; was put in charge of organizing the event.

‘The idea is to allow freshmen to mix with upperclassmen, faculty, and the community,’ Bradford said. ‘A lot of freshmen are away from home for the first time, and students new to the campus don’t really know what’s going on. They need events like this to get them out there and encourage them to be involved on campus.’

Music helped to bring the freshmen out of their dorms. DJ HNIC played a mix of rap, R’amp;B, hip hop, and reggae. Food was delivered every half-hour by two local businesses, Campus Pollyeyes and Ebony’s, while Pepsi provided drinks to entice people out into the warm evening.

The event was catered to bring out more minority students because Bradford believes they particularly need to be shown the benefits being part of the University has.

‘This is targeted towards minority students because they are at greater risk academically,’ Bradford said. ‘There is a higher chance of them either not studying or partying too much, and once they are on academic probation it’s just more difficult to get them back to where they need to be.’

Bradford’s efforts to see that students get involved and continue to be encouraged to work hard are designed to complement the University’s own strives to see that first year students continue their academic career at BGSU.

The healthy turn out at the event was due in part to a collaborative effort put forth by Zeta Phi Beta and Phi Beta Sigma, who helped bring the crowd onto the courts with an exhibition of dance and spirit.

Freshmen Jackie Aponte and Maurice Bennett felt that this sort of outreach was a good idea, especially to cap off the first day of class. Bradford believed students would welcome the chance to unwind after their first experience in University classrooms.

According to those in attendance, all of the goals set by Bradford for the event were achieved.

‘I had fun,’ said Erica Goldsmith, freshman. ‘It gave me a chance to meet new people and made me want to get involved.’