The new members of the Undergraduate Student Goverment were formally inaugurated yesterday in a ceremony held in the main lounge of the Ohio Union.

President Suzanne Scharer and vice president Matt Kreiner were sworn in by USG advisor Matt Couch at a ceremony attended by Ohio State President Karen A. Holbrook, Provost Barbara Snyder and other university officials.

“A balance must be achieved between learning inside and outside of the classroom,” Scharer said in the text of her speech. “We are here to develop into better students and better citizens.”

Scharer’s speech covered two main topics: academic issues and the off-campus community, both of which she said will be her administration’s main focal points.

“USG is a vehicle for change, and as president and vice president it is our chief duty to ensure those changes,” she said in the text of her speech.

She listed the main goals of her inauguration: to reform the General Education Curriculum, to improve the Honors Program, to adjust the required number of hours required to graduate and to improve the undergraduate experience by having more long-term faculty members and increase interaction between them and the students.

In addition to the inauguration of the two leaders of the legislature, Couch swore in the members of the 38th USG Senate. The senate is composed of 47 students representing various constituencies relating to OSU, according to USG’s Web site.

Scharer congratulated the new members of the Senate, as well as the 7-member Senate Steering team in the text of her speech.

She also thanked outgoing USG vice president Deb Mason for her tutelage.

“It’s her passion for student issues that I now minic, and her guidance that taught me how best to serve students,” she said in the text of her speech.

Scharer also said the hardest person to express her gratitude to was outgoing USG president Aftab Pureval. Scharer served as Pureval’s intern, director, campaign manager and chief of staff during the past three years.

“My words will never do justice my thanks to Aftab, but I hope my actions over the next year and into the future will show of the leadership (Pureval) has bestowed upon me,” she said in the text of her speech.

“We’re working on behalf of the students who work two jobs to stay in school, who financial aid cannot fully support and who need our advocacy to graduate.”

Arts Editor David J. Cross contributed to this article.