Attendees at the Undergraduate Student Government annual state of the university address listened to an overview of USG activities and concerns.
USG President Suzanne Sharer spoke to a group of students, USG members and administrators at the Ohio Union last night. Her speech had two themes: “Education for Citizenship” and “Do something great.”
GEC reform was one major topic of the speech.
“It is now the time for a new general education that meets the needs of undergraduates,” Sharer said.
Sharer said the McHale report, which presented research done on the issues of general education curriculum reform that was conducted over 9 months and was completed in November, identified four guiding principles that are necessary in the reform process: coherence, flexibility, oversight and transparency.
“Over the next few weeks, we’ll be finalizing where undergraduates stand on allowing colleges to determine foreign-language requirements, how first years could benefit from freshman clusters, and the overall decrease and shift in our general education classes,” Sharer said.
Sarah Ho, a USG member, is a freshman in psychology and comparative studies. GEC reform could help students who have double majors graduate on time, she said.
Off-campus safety has also been a top priority of the USG administration.
“East of High Street, where thousands of students reside, encompasses a very different culture than our on-campus community. In addition to poor lighting, various challenging living conditions, parking problems and on-going safety concerns, we lack community,” Sharer said.
Sharer explained how USG will be creating a proposal to compete for $3 million from the Urban Infrastructure Recovery Fund, available through the city of Columbus, to adequately light the area east of High Street. And she expressed the ongoing need for a neighborhood policing center that has yet to be created, even though university leaders and Columbus leaders announced plans for the center in the fall of 2004.
OSU President Karen A. Holbrook said student safety is a concern to administrators.
“We think about it all the time,” Holbrook said.
She echoed Sharers frustration with the slow progress for improvement.
“It’s dragged on for much too long. They took the initiative to apply for the grant,” Holbrook said. “I have never seen such committed leaders.”
“The call I heard Suz make tonight was for more student involvement,” said Rich Hollingsworth, interim Vice President of Student Affairs, “The missing element has been students when trying to solve problems.”
