Penn State students had a farm,

E-I-E-I-O.

Until Penn State officials shifted Circleville's ways,

E-I-E-I-O.

With a shift to research here and a shift to research there, here to research, there to research, everywhere to faculty research . . .

Unfortunately, students probably won't gain nearly as much as Old MacDonald did in the famous song after the Circleville Student Farm shifts from student management to faculty management.

Despite opposition from students, University administrators have restructured the former student-run farm to become a competitive grant program for faculty members.

Faculty members now will propose farm research projects to a committee that will grant funds for selected proposals. Students, instead of designing and managing the projects as they used to, will simply participate in them.

University administrators have shifted the farm's entire focus.

Faculty members and administrators contend that students will benefit from the shift because faculty will run the 176-acre farm more efficiently and will be able to augment classroom teaching with it. More students may be exposed to the farm, they believe, citing recent declining numbers of participants as a cause behind restructuring.

Yet many students involved with the farm say a large part of the Circleville learning experience consisted of making operating decisions and learning from other student managers. Learning how to manage agricultural projects made Circleville -- in operation since 1984 -- a true hands-on project and an ideal training program for actual farming.

Students now are not even included in the project selection process. The project selection committee consists only of representatives from each agriculture department; no student representatives are included.

In March, restructuring opponents said they feared the shift would work against student involvement. They were right. Many of the students have left the farm, officials said, leaving the College of Agriculture with only hope of more enthusiasm in the fall.

Obviously, a restructuring process that makes students feel left out enough to abandon the project will not help them gain more exposure to better farming.

In simple terms, undergraduate education at Circleville has been put out to pasture. The state's only land-grant university has chosen to put aside agricultural students' needs in favor of improving faculty research opportunities.

If the University is serious about its commitment to educating the providers of tomorrow's food, it should reassess Circleville's new structure. Penn State has an obligation to improve the farm and make it more attractive to more students without taking it away from them.

The solution may not be as simple as shifting the farm's entire focus, but it may be more in line with the state's original intention of providing a practical agricultural experience with the farm.

But as Circleville stands now, the University's message is as easy to understand as a children's song: At Penn State, faculty research has priority over undergraduate education.