Students considering purchasing an Ohio State college ring should hit the bookstores soon if they want to decide what their ring will look like.After March 16, choosing a college ring will be easy because three weeks ago, a committee composed of university representatives made the decision to begin a five-year pilot program to create one official ring to represent the university.”I think it is totally ridiculous that a student would be told what ring to buy,” said Tony Dial, a junior in health information management. Dial said he was planning to buy a ring but probably will not if he can’t pick out what it will look like.The committee hired Milestone Traditions to be the sole distributor of the university’s new commemorative ring. “OSU is gaining distrust of its student body by selling out its integrity to big companies,” said Shannon Ortiz, a senior in international studies.Other commemorative companies such as Herff Jones, Jostens and Artcarve Commemorative will no longer be permitted to sell their rings on campus after March 16.A representative from the Jostens Corporation, who spoke on anonymity, said that she is not convinced this is the best decision for a school as large and diverse as OSU. “We would like to see if we can begin a ring tradition,” said Helen DeSantis, assistant vice president of Business Operations at OSU. DeSantis said she and others on the committee made the decision to go to a single-official ring concept to try and establish the exclusivity and tradition that other universities have experienced with their class ring.The committee was made up of representatives from the president’s office, Alumni Association, Office of Trademark and Licensing Services, OSU Bookstores, retail companies and faculty. DeSantis said students from every student organization were invited to join the committee but did not attend any committee meetings.Out of the 10,000 people who are eligible to graduate every quarter, only about 600 people purchase a college ring, DeSantis said.”I think that if we went to an official ring program and invited students to design the ring, we then could establish a tradition,” DeSantis said. “Schools with a strong ring tradition have about 75 to 80 percent of its students maintaining an official ring tradition.”According to DeSantis, all ring companies were asked to submit a proposal and presentation to the committee in June. Milestone Traditions was selected based on its experience, marketing and success with this type of program at other schools.”Even if they use one company, we should be able to pick from different rings,” said Frank Prolago, a senior in journalism.Even though March 16 has been set as the date all other companies must stop selling, the new official university ring has not been designed.DeSantis said that focus groups of students, alumni and faculty still need to be constructed and hopefully a ring will be ready by spring quarter.”It’s an aggressive schedule, and we may have to push the target date back until fall,” DeSantis said.