COLUMBUS - Near nightfall the sky becomes a dark shade of blue as a harsh winter wind blows across the Oval, the center of the Ohio State University campus.

It is here that Sarah Topy feels the sheer size of OSU as thousands of students follow the paths that converge at the center of one of the country's biggest universities.

“Sometimes, I am completely awestruck,” says Ms. Topy, 19. “I'm sitting in a class and looking out at the Oval and thinking, `My God, I've never seen this many people in my life.'”

For decades, everyone from bright-eyed freshmen to Ohio's most powerful politicians have pointed to the size of OSU and called it greatness.

“To be biggest is a fine, all-American achievement,” wrote Jane Ware in her 1991 book that chronicled a year in the life of OSU. “It puts Ohio State in the heady company of the Sears Tower, New York City, and the King Ranch.”

But William E. Kirwan doesn't see it that way. Dr. Kirwan - who became OSU's president in 1998 after leading the University of Maryland-College Park for eight years - is carrying a message around the campus, the state, and the nation.

Ohio State must become “one of the world's great public research and teaching universities,” he says over and over.

It's a pursuit that is nearly as old as OSU.

In October, 1957, in his first annual report as Ohio State's president, Novice Fawcett wrote: “This institution is dedicated to the full attainment of its rightful place among the top-ranking universities of the world.”

Six years later, he told a reporter for the campus newspaper that the university had “come across the threshold of greatness” and he cited “better faculty, better students, and better facilities.”

But what makes Dr. Kirwan's effort different is the bench mark he is setting for Ohio State - the University of Michigan and eight other major public universities spread across the country.

He is measuring Ohio State against the academic achievement of arch-rival Michigan, Penn State University, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Minnesota, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, and the University of Illinois.

And OSU is lagging, Dr. Kirwan says.

In the latest college rankings by U.S. News & World Report, the University of Michigan ranked 25th out of the nation's 50 best universities, with Princeton University listed as No. 1. Among public universities, the University of Michigan ranked third, Penn State 13th, and OSU 20th. The University of California-Berkeley was ranked No. 1.

The same report rated only four OSU doctorate programs - chemistry, physics, political science, and sociology - in the top 25, placing OSU eighth among the nine state universities that Dr. Kirwan is using for comparisons.

“Today, Ohio State is perceived as having great athletics and good, but not outstanding, academics,” states the “Academic Plan,” a 23-page report that is OSU's strategy for improvement. “... Allowing for many exceptions to such generalizations, that perception is fairly close to the mark.”

To make OSU a “truly great university,” Dr. Kirwan wants 20 programs ranked in the top 20 nationally and 10 programs ranked in the top 10 - all by 2010.

“Ohio needs such a revving economic engine to succeed in the 21st century Information Age economy - a university that spawns innovation, generates new technologies and ideas, and produces talented graduates for successful commercial enterprises,” the “Academic Plan” report states.

The effort will require $750 million over five years, tougher admission standards, and higher pay for faculty members, university officials say.

Dr. Kirwan says the biggest obstacle to reaching the 2010 goal is lining up the funding. The university has retooled its budget to transfer funds to programs in need of improvement, but the state also must ante up or OSU won't meet the deadline, he says.

But a bigger threat may be the corrosive side of OSU's obsession with sports, in particular football, which has become national news.

After last year's loss to Michigan, students and others set about 140 fires on the southern edge of the campus. Columbus police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up drunken crowds that rocked and tipped over cars. A student was stabbed as he tried to get people to leave an off-campus party.

Columbus police circulated a computer printout that read: “Campus ablaze: the benefits of higher education. Brought to you by the Ohio State University and Anheuser-Busch.”

“It got completely out of hand,” says Sgt. Earl Smith, a spokesman for the Columbus police.

A weekly Columbus newspaper chronicled what it called a “riot culture,” with students telling firefighters that arson has become a tradition.

When head football coach John Cooper was fired six weeks later, the university paid him $1.9 million for the final three years of his five-year contract. Now, the university is investigating Mr. Cooper's expense reports.

As students and parents visit an aging Main Library in need of extensive improvements, OSU officials are busy saying that the athletics department does not use money from the state or student fees.

Nonetheless, Ohio State is struggling with debt from construction of the $115 million Schottenstein Center, which replaced St. John Arena in 1998 as the home of Buckeye basketball. The athletic department supplied $1 million last year to the center to make up a budget deficit.

Other big-ticket projects include a $187 million renovation of Ohio Stadium and a $136 million reconstruction of Larkins Hall, which houses several varsity teams.

Even OSU fans reacted cynically when Dr. Kirwan said Coach Cooper's firing was linked to the team's lackluster graduation rates and classroom attendance.

Alumni say it was all about money. Students said if the football coach was responsible for the behavior of his athletes, then Dr. Kirwan should be fired because of the riot following the Michigan game last November.

In response, Dr. Kirwan says the University of Michigan has not been immune to violence fueled by sports and alcohol.

“It does not necessarily follow that there is a direct correlation to occasional disturbances and academic quality,” he says.

Dr. Kirwan, whose father was the football coach at the University of Kentucky and became president of that school, has said that OSU could not have raised $1.23 billion in private donations during the past five years without the popularity of OSU sports.

“If I could go back and redesign our society and our world and our university, I would surely create a system where athletics has less prominence,” Dr. Kirwan says. “But I realize that we live in a society where athletics is just an enormous part of our culture. It is true at Ohio State and it is true at the University of Michigan.”

The OSU board of trustees last month approved a new student code of conduct spurred by the riot after the Michigan football game.

The code extends the jurisdiction of the university for disciplinary action to off-campus incidents.

Sergeant Smith, the Columbus Police Department spokesman, says it's too early to tell whether the new code of conduct will deter hooliganism.

“Without OSU's support, we are dead in the water,” he says.

As for the OSU-Michigan rivalry, Ms. Topy and other students question why Dr. Kirwan would want to compare OSU's academics with Michigan, which has strict admission policies and lavish support from state government.

“Too much, too soon,” says Ms. Topy, a sophomore who wants to go to law school.

But James Duderstadt, a former University of Michigan president who is now an engineering professor on the Ann Arbor campus, applauds Dr. Kirwan, whose nickname is “Brit” because his middle name is English.

“Brit is certainly on target. Ohio needs a world-class research university and Columbus is the place,” Dr. Duderstadt says.

'Land-grant' university

The debate over whether OSU can become “truly one of the world's great universities” is rooted in the university's creation. On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that gave states 30,000 acres for each U.S. senator and representative they had. That's why OSU is referred to as a “land-grant” university.

When OSU - then called the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College - opened its doors on Sept. 17, 1873, the debate already was hot over what its purpose should be.

On one side were those who wanted the new state university to focus solely on agriculture and trades. Others wanted a place “where any child of the state could have the opportunity” to pursue an education.

OSU's first president, Edward Orton, pushed for a university to educate the “industrial classes,” which he defined as the “great mass of the American people.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, OSU had 1,465 students. By 1956, enrollment had grown to 41,392. The debate over admission standards simmered in the background.

In 1985, Ohio State President Edward Jennings called for “selective admissions.”

“Not every student should go to a community or technical college - but some should. It is neither possible nor desirable for Ohio State to attempt to be all things to all Ohioans,” he said.

Until 1987, OSU had “open admissions.” That meant that any Ohioan who graduated from high school could go to Ohio State as long as there was room.

Now, for three of the university's four academic quarters, the admissions policy is selective, with roughly two-thirds of the freshman class in the top 25 percent of their high school class.

Applicants who don't get in have the option of going to a regional campus or waiting until spring quarter, says Mabel Freeman, OSU's interim director of undergraduate admissions.

Dr. Kirwan wants to make the admissions policy selective year-round for all freshman and transfer students.

Two goals are to boost the number of freshmen who were in the top 10 percent of their high school class. Also, OSU wants to increase the percentage of students who get their undergraduate degree within six years from 56 percent to 80 percent, Dr. Freeman says.

A tougher admissions standard has revived the debate over whether OSU, with 47,952 students on the Columbus campus, is too large to become one of the world's great universities.

When Joseph Alutto became dean of the College of Business in 1991, there were 4,500 undergraduate business majors and 100 faculty members. Most courses were taught by teaching assistants and part-time faculty.

The College of Business now accepts 2,400 undergraduate majors. The result: the percentage of courses taught by full-time, doctorate-qualified faculty has jumped from 25 percent to 80 percent in a decade.

“If you have a large enough resource base, you can handle 45,000 to 50,000 students. If you don't, you should make the decision to downsize,” Dr. Alutto says.

State Rep. David Goodman, a Columbus Republican who is chairman of the House higher education subcommittee, says he is “more interested in OSU's quality than its quantity.”

During his tenure as president of the University of Maryland-College Park, Dr. Kirwan reduced enrollment by 20 percent.

The strategy worked because the Maryland Legislature increased funding to offset the loss of tuition money, while other Maryland universities absorbed the students who couldn't get into the University of Maryland.

Dr. Kirwan says he expects enrollment will increase at OSU's five regional campuses as admission standards become more competitive for the Columbus campus.

“I really do think Ohio State is the right size. It's under-funded,” he says, noting that Ohio ranks 42nd in per capita funding on higher education in the nation.

Dr. Kirwan's strategy, however, is not limited to trying to get more money from the Legislature.

He also wants the state to exempt OSU from the 6 percent cap on annual tuition increases for undergraduate students on the Columbus campus.

Governor Taft has endorsed the proposal - which would allow undergraduate tuition to jump by 67 percent over six years - but legislators continue to debate it.

Currently, OSU ranks eighth among state-supported universities in tuition and fees.

Over the next five to six years, Dr. Kirwan wants to raise tuition by 9 percent annually. For the 2001-02 school year, that would cost undergraduates an additional $407. In-state undergraduate students now pay $4,383 a year in tuition.

If Dr. Kirwan gets a green light, OSU's tuition and fees in six years would rank fourth among state universities in Ohio, behind Miami University, the University of Cincinnati, and Kent State University.

The tuition hike would enable the university to generate an additional $32 million per year, Dr. Kirwan says.

After using $10 million to help low-income students, OSU would use the remaining $22 million to improve undergraduate programs, such as offering more courses to reduce the size of classes and buying more computer technology.

But Randy Headley, a suburban Columbus resident who has two children at OSU, says the state has failed to hold OSU administrators accountable for their inability to manage the huge campus.

The number of courses that close quickly because of high demand makes it tough for students to graduate in four years, enabling OSU to collect more tuition in what Mr. Headley refers to as “almost a scam.”

“Every president who comes to OSU is looking for more money in terms of tuition and the state budget and they all promise the same things - smaller courses, renowned professors - and it never happens,” says Mr. Headley, who graduated in 1969 with an undergraduate degree in business administration.

“I think the money gets spent on other things, and I'm not sure university presidents are the greatest managers,” he adds.

Dr. Kirwan's approach is familiar to Richard Todaro, who has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Maryland and a pile of student loan debt.

During Dr. Kirwan's tenure, the cost for a full-time, in-state undergraduate student increased at Maryland from $1,724 per semester in 1990 to $3,744 in 1997 - a 117 percent jump.

“To me, universities are like a split personality. It has this noble mission of education. On the other hand, it is like a for-profit corporation and it can be as greedy as any corporation,” says Mr. Todaro, a Washington resident who is critical of the tuition increases at Maryland.

Dan Roth, a 22-year-old Ohio State senior majoring in three subjects, says he believes Dr. Kirwan's goal to make OSU a great university is a “question of advertising.”

“A lot of what exists at the university is probably world-class. What they are trying to do is package it in such a way that it gains the reputation of a University of Michigan or a Wisconsin. The reputation of OSU for simply football is a big problem in that sense,” he says.

Dr. Kirwan says the “excellence of Ohio State” is crucial for Ohio's economy.

“We all recognize we are in an information economy, and success in this day and age is for states and regions to be dependent on the quality of education and research,” he says.

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First Published March 11, 2001, 12:36 p.m.