| The lead story on the front page of this week's issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, "When Undergraduates Do Research" focuses on the many ways that students and faculty profit from participating in these programs. Providing undergraduate students, in many cases beginning in the freshmen year, an opportunity to work on a research project with a faculty member or graduate student is relatively new to the academy. Like many other innovations in higher education, undergraduate research programs were created as "minority programs" by institutions that collaborated with the federal government to provide opportunities for those who had been underserved. The first large, nationwide programs, Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC), Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) and Research Experience for Undergraduates (REUs) programs were created in the 1970s by the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) and the National Science Foundation in collaboration with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). It is interesting, although not surprising, that the Chronicle article neglected to mention the origins of these innovative programs./Representing the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota in the late 1970s, and then again as a Graduate Dean at UW-Madison in the 1990s, I regularly traveled to several of the HBCUs and HSIs in the south, southwest and in Puerto Rico to recruit outstanding undergraduate MARC, MBRS and REU students of color to the graduate and professional programs at both institutions. The students that I met at each institution were involved in extensive research programs that began during their freshmen year and continued through graduation. Almost all of the students received some type of financial compensation for the work they did in the lab or on research projects. Even more importantly, however, is the fact that they were engaged in a close one-on-one mentoring relationship with the faculty and graduate students who were the sponsors for the research. The level of care, trust and motivation that the students received from their mentors inspired them and made them confident of their potential and success. The NIH and NSF brought the students and their mentors together annually at a national conference where they jointly presented on their research. I have attended many of these conferences over the years. It was a tremendous experience for those young students to travel to cities like New Orleans, Albuquerque, or San Diego, put on their Sunday best and step up to the podium to talk about the cutting edge research that many of them were doing. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which is the academic component of the Big Ten Consortium, capitalized on the good work done by the MARC, MBRS and REU programs when they created the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). Each year, Big Ten Universities would recruit student participants who had completed their sophomore year to spend 8 to 10 weeks on campus paired up with a faculty mentor to work on research projects. I placed many of these bright students in labs on the campuses of Minnesota and the UW. In almost all cases, the students received close mentoring and support in addition to the financial compensation. The benefit from the Institution's point of view was the fact that they got a chance to bring some "instant diversity" to their campuses with the prospects enhanced for the recruitment of talented undergraduates as graduate students a year or so later. If the student had a successful experience on campus and eventually applied for admission to the graduate program, they would often have a powerful ally in the faculty mentor who in many cases served on the departmental admissions committee. In some instances, the students would also profit from having their names added to the publications of some of the universities' star researchers. Many, after matriculating, would often get paid internships or research assistantship with that same faculty member. Others would also often get their dissertation topics from their faculty mentors' research portfolio. The Chronicle article, after evaluating undergraduate research programs came to the conclusion that many who have been involved in this enterprise have known all along when they noted: "The three studies largely agreed on their conclusions -- they found similar gains in undergraduate learning and effects on students' career paths." The vast majority of students enjoy doing research and say they have learned a lot. Fortunately, undergraduate research programs are now widely available at all types of institutions -- from large public universities to small, private liberal arts institutions. If you are a newly enrolled freshman, or even an upper-class student on campus, make it your priority to get involved in undergraduate research. It will probably be the best decision that you can make to enhance the quality of your educational experience on campus while preparing you at the same time for the next phase of your academic career. |
| The Literary Divide/Dr. Paul Barrows Undergraduate research promotes excellence in your college educational experience |
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