Workshop Program on
Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research
for State Systems and Consortia

CUR has announced those selected to participate in the first round of workshops. These workshops are designed to improve the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at state college and university systems and private and public consortia.  After a highly competitive selection process CUR is proud to announce that California State University System, the University of Wisconsin State System, and the Council on Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) are the first of six awardees that have been chosen to participate. 

Please visit: Press Release to view the full announcement.

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) has recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (NSF-CCLI) program for a comprehensive expansion of the successful model of CUR’s annual, national-level Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research workshop.  The NSF grant will focus on improving the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at state colleges and universities systems and public and private consortia with similar or closely related missions.

The workshops and follow-up activities are designed for state systems and other consortia comprised of four-year undergraduate institutions who are interested in building and enhancing a culture that supports undergraduate research both at the institutional and system/consortium level. The workshops will assist participating systems/consortia and their constituent campuses in articulating  goals for institutionalizing undergraduate research as well as developing strategies to achieve these goals on each campus.  The workshops also are designed to identify common challenges and opportunities among the participating campuses for initiating and sustaining faculty-student collaborative or mentored undergraduate research and to develop an integrated approach with the support of the central system/consortium office that will aid in expanding the undergraduate research capacity throughout the system/consortium. 

All types of systems and consortia within higher education that offer four-year undergraduate programs are invited to submit an application to participate in these workshops.

Each selected system or consortia will send a four-member team from each constituent campus, composed of STEM faculty members and at least one administrator.  CUR’s grant-funded project will cover all expenses for the selected institutions’ team members to attend the workshop, with the exception of the teams’ travel to the workshop. Each selected system or consortia will also send one representative to the workshop whose portfolio includes responsibility for developing and implementing the system or consortia-wide undergraduate research program.

At the workshop, institutional teams will have the opportunity to work directly with experienced facilitators who have successfully mentored or supervised undergraduate students in research and developed research programs within their departments, institutions, regions, and at the national level.  The workshop program will take into consideration the specific needs of the selected systems/consortia.  Examples of the broad topics to be addressed at the workshop might include:

• Developing a campus/state/consortia culture that supports undergraduate research
• Highlighting successful undergraduate research programs and models
• Promoting undergraduate research on campus and in the state/consortia
• Sustaining an undergraduate research culture
• Developing a research-supportive curriculum
• Funding for undergraduate research
• Advocacy for undergraduate research

A draft agenda for the workshop will be available on this site shortly.

Each campus team will leave the workshop having developed a customized and action-oriented plan to develop or enhance an undergraduate research program on their own campus. In addition, each system/consortia will develop a coordinated plan to imbed and sustain undergraduate research as a central pedagogical and scholarly endeavor within the system/consortium.  Along with the immediate outcomes of the workshop, each participating state/consortia will benefit from a robust series of coordinated, follow-up activities that are designed to 1) foster continuing and expanded interactions among workshop participants, 2) provide support during implementation of campus/state/consortia plans to facilitate sustainability, and 3) establish a community of faculty and administrators that share a mutual interest in undergraduate research. 

Selected system/consortia will be required to engage in a series of follow-up activities beyond the workshops.  These include:

• Follow-up Workshop for Each Participating System/Consortium – Approximately one year after participating in a workshop, each institutional team and system/consortium representative will attend a follow-up workshop.  They will share their experiences, present their action plans, describe what is working and describe the challenges they have faced.  Teams will help each other wrestle with ideas and determine solutions to problems.   


• Continuing Facilitator-Team Interactions – After each workshop, teams will continue to communicate with their facilitators on the progress of their action plan. 
• Interactions with the Broader Undergraduate Research Community – Networking receptions for all workshop attendees will be held at the CUR National Conferences (held in June of 2012, 2014, and 2016) and at the CUR Dialogues meetings held in spring of each year (Washington, DC).  Registration fees will be provided for two members from each team to attend one of these events.  Institutions will be responsible for covering all of the other expenses associated with attendance (travel, housing, meals).

Systems and Consortia interested in participating in this exciting project must formally apply to be considered for participation.  There is a two-step application with an initial submission of a pre-proposal.  Following a review of the pre-proposals, finalists will be selected to submit full proposals for consideration for acceptance to the program.  

Pre-Proposal Application
The application for the pre-proposal consists of the following components, which should be answered in one word or pdf document, which will be uploaded using the application link.  

1) Demographic Information
      a) Name of the system/consortium
      b) Number and names of the campuses belonging to the system/consortium
      c) Undergraduate and total student enrollment for each of the constituent campuses

2) Team Leadership
      a) Name and professional title of the system/consortium-level administrator who will oversee the project and attend the workshops.
      b) List of the programs, projects, and initiatives that the system/consortium-level administrator oversees.
      c) Names and professional titles of each potential team leader from the participating campuses who will oversee the project on each campus and attend the workshops.

3) Narrative Statements
      a) Describe the current state of undergraduate research within the system/consortium at each of the participating campuses.
      b) Describe the outcomes the system/consortium hopes to realize through participation in the project.
      c) Describe the commitment of the system/consortium to facilitate and sustain the institutionalization of undergraduate research at the constituent campuses.
      d) Describe the rationale for why the system/consortium-level administrator was chosen.

4) Logistics
      a) List the participating campus (or campuses) that have a relatively central location within the system/consortium and could serve as the host site for the workshop.
      b) Select the year/semester in which you would like to hold the workshop (in priority order, with #1 being your first choice).
                       
                        Spring 2012   ______
                        Fall 2012       ______

Systems/Consortia will be selected on the basis of 1) the perceived need and readiness for participation in the project, and 2) the commitment to system/consortium-level change. Selected systems/consortia will be invited to submit a full proposal. 

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) delivered its first system wide NSF sponsored workshop program at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, NC on June 28-30, 2011. The “Workshop Program on Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research for State Systems and Consortia” was delivered for members of the Council on Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC). The COPLAC consortium had 23 teams and approximately ninety-five faculty members from the STEM disciplines from colleges across the country participate in the workshop program.

The workshop was led by Nancy Hensel, CUR Executive Officer, Mitch Malachowski and Jeffrey Osborn. Also infused in the workshop were a host of facilitators from CUR who led concurrent and small group sessions.

During the three-day workshop campus teams shared best practices in the high impact area of undergraduate research, attended plenary sessions and gathered in small groups to develop action plans for each home campus. Concurrent sessions focused on a wide range of issues, including faculty workload and undergraduate mentoring, tenure and promotion, funding sources to strengthen undergraduate research capacities, and assessment of undergraduate research activities.

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) has collaborated with the University of Wisconsin System to deliver a three day workshop. The workshop was held on September 23-25, 2011 at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire campus. With thirteen teams from the various campuses and representatives from the UW System office present, the workshop provided background on undergraduate research and cross campus networking to promote collaborations and share resources.

The workshop program was led by Mitch Malachowski and Jeffrey Osborn with concurrent and small group sessions delivered by CUR facilitators.

During the workshop, topics presented included Perspectives on Undergraduate Research, Culture and Institutional Change and Developing an Institutional Infrastructure to Support Undergraduate Research. The concurrent sessions presented workshop attendees with an intimate setting to share their own perspectives on a wide variety of topics that are of importance on their own campuses. In addition, the small group sessions helped teams define the centrality of undergraduate research on their respective campus and the institution’s aspirations for undergraduate research. This was done by identifying major issues for the campus and setting goals for institutionalizing undergraduate research as well as developing strategies for achieving the desired goals.

On October 21-22, 2011, CUR delivered a two day workshop program for nine campuses in the California State University System held at the CSU Los Angeles campus. The workshop program was led by Kerry Karukstis, Mitch Malachowski and Jeffrey Osborn. CUR facilitators oversaw multiple concurrent sessions which included conversations on assessment and curriculum using case studies and small group sessions that focused on institutionalizing undergraduate research on each of the CSU campuses.

This workshop was infused with guest presenters to further the richness of the content to meet the CSU system needs. The workshop presenters included Carlos G. Gutiérrez from CSU-LA who discussed Student Diversity in Undergraduate Research with hopes to increase the participation by minority group members in STEM careers.  In addition, Sandra Gregerman from the University of Michigan and Angela Locks from CSU-Long Beach presented a plenary on Assessment and it’s Role in Undergraduate Research. This particular plenary focused on the state of assessment for undergraduate research and the impact of assessment, programmatic/ formative assessment and outcomes based assessment as it relates to program goals.

If you would like more information regarding this workshop or information regarding CUR’s NSF sponsored projects please contact the CUR national office at cur@cur.org.

Please see the Press Release from November 7, 2011