We are proud of all of our faculty, but these distinguished faculty members are the best of the best. The second item I want to mention is the national recognition given to our transportation department under the leadership of Janet Ashe and Sarah Blouch. This group won the Rochester Institute of Technology USA Today Quality 2000 Award and they were featured in USA Today this past month. They were recognized at our Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting this morning, and deserve our commendation for the example they set by performing the highest standard of quality. The third item I want to mention is the impressive contribution our undergraduates make to research at this university, a topic that was discussed this morning at the Educational Affairs Committee meeting.
Research is no longer the exclusive domain of graduate education.
A good undergraduate education at a research university like Ohio State must include a quality research component. Beginning next winter, we will offer our first year students 10 undergraduate research courses aimed initially at our honors and scholars students. This research component will be presented exclusively by faculty, most of them senior faculty. We will begin with 200 first-year students in the fall and grow the program from there. Many undergraduates already participate in research activities.