Focusing on the growing rift between the quality of undergraduate education and research at Ohio State, Undergraduate Student Government President Mike Goodman addressed a number of students, faculty and administration in the Ohio Union conference theater yesterday.

“On behalf of the tuition-paying students at Ohio State, and the tax-paying citizens of the state of Ohio, tonight I want to say that we feel that the focus on undergraduate education is missing,” Goodman said in his State of the University Address last night.

Frank Sasso, USG vice president, introduced the speech by talking about his reasons for becoming involved in USG.

“I hope to leave it just a little bit better for future generations of Buckeyes,” Sasso said.

Goodman followed Sasso’s introduction by saying that the focus on undergraduate education is giving way to budget cuts and he reiterated that not all undergraduates come to OSU for the research opportunities offered here.

“While the knowledge students’ gain from participating in research may help them in their future endeavors, most students come to OSU for a high-quality undergraduate education. We are ignoring these students. Research should be a compliment to education, not a replacement,” Goodman said.

He then went on to give a series of examples in which he feels undergraduate education is suffering at the hands of a system focused on saving money in all the wrong ways.

Goodman cited the abundance of online courses and virtual office hours via chat rooms over face-to-face contact as an example of the lack of student-teacher interaction. He is calling for more regular faculty and is appalled at the concept of teachers being able to teach more students with less money.

“According to the Registrars’ Office, in Autumn 2003, at the undergraduate level, only 44.7 percent of students were taught by faculty in any of their classes. Therefore, 65.3 percent of students did not interact with a faculty member in the classroom,” Goodman said. “This is unacceptable.”

Bringing up the topic of intra-university politics, Goodman addressed the issues of revising the General Education Curriculum and developing a more fitting set of curriculum requirements. His argument is based upon the concept that as the quality of students have improved over the past 13 years, the GEC has not been revised. However, OSU’s budget model provides a negative incentive to changing the GEC.

Goodman applauded the development of freshman seminars in response to issues concerning the GEC but concedes that the goal of improving student-faculty interactions will not be met through a quarter of these classes.

Drawing attention to one college in particular, Goodman pointed out the journalism program in the School of Communication. He focused on the fact that out of the six radio frequencies owned by the university, students are unable to use even one of them as a practical learning environment.

“The (program) is becoming a disappointment to students who are presently enrolled, and to those who come to OSU thinking we have a practical program to train them in this field. We recruit students with a promise of a department we don’t have. The university should commit more to these students.”

He then turned to the Student Union, comparing it with those of OSU’s benchmark institutions and even smaller, less-funded universities. Goodman challenged the high-risk debt the university was willing to undertake for a new medical center building with the low-risk debt for a new student union.

Goodman concluded his address with suggestions for re-focusing the university’s attention on undergraduate students. The first of these, to ensure that all individuals hired by OSU value quality undergraduate education.

Secondly, he is calling for a new Quality of Undergraduate Education report. It has been 10 years since the last QUE was done and the talent of the student body has changed tremendously over that decade.

Finally, Goodman charges the university with shrinking administrative costs and putting those savings into actions, which will benefit undergraduate education.

“Every year we welcome a class better prepared and brighter overall than the previous year, and every year we ask these students to balance our budget. It’s time for the university to figure out the balance between research and undergraduate education, and stop asking undergraduates to pay more and get less.”

Following the address, Holbrook commended Goodman on a “thoughtful and powerful speech.”

“I think it’s wonderful that he focused on academics, it was a really positive position for him to take,” Holbrook said.