If you’re wondering who all those new faces are around Oxford this weekend, they are the 16,500 Miami University students coming back to town for their spring semester, which starts Monday, Jan. 24.

Some of them have been here since the fall semester ended in mid-December. They’ve worked various jobs around town or participated in J-term programs. Some of them have even worked to put the Oxford Observer out for the past three weeks.

But most of them went home for the holidays and have not returned since. Now, they’re checking into dorms or re-occupying their off-campus apartments, double-checking their class schedules and, of course, heading to Uptown to socialize.

And that 16,500 number only accounts for the undergraduates. Another 2,300 or so graduate students will join the crowd.

Welcome back to normal, Oxford.