Dr. Bryce Jordan once compared the undergraduate students of this University to cars at a GM car factory. How does it feel to be a product of automatons on an assembly line?

Was that your understanding of undergraduate education when you first applied to this University? Undergraduate education has become at best a side-product of research and business development and it is clear that the situation needs to be reversed.

Despite what an institution writes in so-called "governing documents" that outline the priorities of an institution, the way to make an honest assessment of an institution's priorities is to see where monies are being allocated.

Penn State University is this state's public University, yet taxpayers of the Commonwealth, students of the University, and even state legislators cannot see this University's budget in its totality.

It is clear that this budgetary information needs to be completely accessible to anyone who requests it, so that those with a vested interest can speak knowledgeably on Penn State's priorities, and thereby influence the direction of Penn State's undergraduate education.

There have been different strategies used involving both the legislature and the courts to help give students and taxpayers this needed information. Small groups of students have lobbied state legislators and three students filed a court case as public citizens against the University toward the end of having a completely open budget.

As a person who has participated in both of these strategies, I have seen our triumphs and our mistakes. It is clear to me what needs to be done to open the budget and to better undergraduate education, and I am still committed to it.

This year's USG elections are vital to the realization of these goals, and I feel compelled to share my thoughts as to which USG presidential candidate can best lead the Commonwealth in this regard.

Jim Van Horn and Denys Wilmer have an idea for lobbying that has never been fully explored. They want to lobby the state legislature in cooperation with the student leaders of Temple University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University, the "state-related" universities.

Their idea is the HELP proposal. HELP stands for Higher Education Lobbying Program, and it will be made up of the 130,000 students who attend the four "state-related" universities.

The only way that state legislators will be convinced that there are serious problems with the undergraduate education at Penn State and that other major universities of the state is for students to have a unified voice.

Jim Van Horn has already been in contact with the student leaders of these universities, and they are completely committed to this coalition. The beautiful thing about HELP is that it is a means to not only address the open budget issue, but all issues that affect undergraduates and their higher education in the Commonwealth.

The final thought that I would leave with you is that if you want your higher education to have top priority and to have a real value, please vote for Jim Van Horn and Denys Wilmer this Wednesday.