HERSHEY -- The University Board of Trustees should stop focusing on research at the expense of undergraduate education, Undergraduate Student Government President Janyne Althaus told the board Saturday.

"(Undergraduate students) should be recognized for what we are -- the future of Penn State," Althaus said during her last address to the board. Althaus' one-year term will expire before the trustees' next meeting in May.

During her speech, which also attacked the trustees' apparent neglect of University libraries, Althaus said a symptom of the lack of attention to undergraduate education is the decreasing number of students pursuing master's and doctoral degrees.

Large classes and multiple choice exams do not teach undergraduate students to think or encourage them to pursue their education further, Althaus said.

"You really can't inspire 900 students in a lecture," Althaus said. "And you can't teach people to think if they're taking multiple choice exams in 400-level classes.

"How can you expect students with that kind of education to be the thinkers of tomorrow?" she said.

However, University President Bryce Jordan defended lecture classes, citing them as part of the tradition of major American universities -- both public and private.

"We're a University -- not a small liberal arts college," Jordan said.

Even Ivy League schools have classes of several hundred people, he said.

"A large lecture class is not necessarily bad education," he said. "Some of my best instruction came in large classes."

President of the Board J. Lloyd Huck said the board has focused on research for the past several years because it needed the attention. The University had always been a leader in undergraduate education, he said.

"It's great strength has always been undergraduate education and we really needed the work at the graduate and research level," Huck said. But he added it may be time to examine the concerns of undergraduates more closely.

"I don't agree with (Althaus') criticism, but I do agree with the concern," Huck said.