Well, the interesting thing is that probably nothing, or very little has changed since your college photo lab days.(posted 8522 days ago)This is a pretty good book on the basics of photography:
Black and White Photography : A Basic Manual by Henry Horenstein, Carol Keller(Illustrator) (Paperback - August 1983)
I find B&H and Adorama good places for mail - order:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com
http://www.adorama.com
Freestyle in CA is also good, but you have to do more 'picking and choosing' as their prices are all over the place. Some items are a good deal, others - pretty expensive.
As I have said repeatedly on this forum, I like the Sprint line of chemistry, available from both B&H and Adorama, except B&H is not shipping Sprint paper developer at present, so go to Adorama and order one liter bottles of: film developer, paper developer, stop, fixer, and fixer remover. It is all for dilution 1:9 with excellent instructions on the bottles. [You will hear MANY other opinions, I do think this is an excellent way to get going.] Also get Photoflo from Kodak, or the equivalent from somebody else. Get a small bottle of Hypo check from Edwal. For paper, start with Ilford MG IV Deluxe in whatever surface you think you prefer. Get a Beseler 23 C enlarger or something like that, with a good Nikon or Schneider lens, a set of filters from Ilford A four blade easel from Saunders, a digital timer, a safelight, a two reel Patterson tank, thermometer, some measuring beakers & storage bottles, 11x14 in trays, tongues, a static cloth from Ilford.
If you have any money left over, take a friend and go out to dinner!
chris