Grad/Post Doc | New Faculty | Tenured Faculty | Dept Chair/Dean | Grants Officers | President/Chancellor

Graduate Students and Post-doctoral Fellows

Find out if teaching at a primarily undergraduate institution is right for you.

• Learn about the culture of undergraduate institutions.
• Talk to others who have made career choices that you are about to make.
• Use CUR’s networking opportunities for personal contacts to gain insight about departments where you hope to have a job interview.
• Visit undergraduate campuses while attending CUR Conferences.

• Gain access to resources on the latest pedagogies.
• Find research colleagues.
• Learn how to jump-start a research program that incorporates undergraduates.
• Learn about funding opportunities.
• Have CUR colleagues critique your first independent grant proposal and your manuscripts through our mentorship program.

• Learn what undergraduate colleges are looking for in new faculty hires.
• Find contacts among faculty members and Deans at undergraduate institutions.
• Get advice on resumes and writing letters of application.

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New Faculty Members

Get help getting started in research with undergraduates.

• Use CUR’s mentoring services, meetings and publications for advice on how to set up your lab to incorporate undergraduates.
• Ask questions of senior faculty presenters at CUR’s national meetings.
• Ask questions of administrators whom you meet at CUR meetings --- questions that you’d not dare to ask your own dean!
• Develop your network of colleagues across the scientific disciplines.
• Read about models of successful careers at undergraduate institutions in the CUR Quarterly.
• Learn how to balance research, teaching and service with home life from those who have done it.

Meet the challenges of evaluation.

• Learn how to work with department chairs, and how to accept and grow from their assessment/evaluations.
• Learn what may be expected of you for promotion and tenure at an undergraduate institution --- including unwritten rules and guides.
• Find out how you can use and benefit from student evaluations.

• Have CUR colleagues critique your first independent grant proposal through our mentorship program.
• Use CUR’s online resources, listserv, and publications to identify funding opportunities.
• Find CUR members with similar research interests that may lead to broader, more interdisciplinary research directions.
• Attend CUR’s Proposal Writing Institute with a team from your school.
• Attend CUR Dialogues to learn more about funding opportunities.

• Use CUR’s models for research-active teaching and learning.
• Help your students make effective oral and poster presentations --- try them out at CUR-sponsored events.
• Learn how to work effectively with colleagues and students to implement research-based educational reforms in science, math, engineering and technology (SMET) education.
• Hear from colleagues at other institutions what motivates diverse students to stay in SMET fields.
• Learn how to adapt your research to involve undergraduates, and how to help undergraduates find their own research problems.

Develop leadership skills.

• Become a CUR Speaker.
• Volunteer for other activities.
• Observe other CUR members in a leadership capacity.
• Find mentors who can help you develop new skills in working with colleagues.

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Tenured Faculty Members

Expand your professional options.

• Participate in CUR’s "The Vital Faculty" Institute for tenured faculty.
• Network with senior CUR members to learn of opportunities for career advancement at other campuses and in administration.
• Talk with others about balancing increasing administrative duties with teaching and research.
• Meet CUR faculty in other disciplines with whom you might develop new interdisciplinary research thrusts.
• Demonstrate your leadership qualities by organizing a CUR activity, or participating in our fundraising for undergraduate fellowships.
• Learn how to institutionalize undergraduate research by attending CUR’s Institute on this topic. Take home a plan ready to implement.
• Participate with a team from your institution in CUR’s Proposal Writing Institute.

Give back to your profession.

• Mentor new faculty and graduate students who share your interests in undergraduate research.
• Participate in CUR’s government relations/science policy program to insure that funding opportunities for faculty and students at undergraduate institutions will be available in the future.
• Use your experience to write articles and give presentations at CUR meetings to help others do research with undergraduates.
• Become a CUR Councilor. You will help CUR and hone your leadership skills for use on your own campus.

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Department Chairs and Deans

Find new ideas to improve your department, Division, or School.

• Come to CUR meetings to participate in dialogues with faculty and administrators outside of the constraints of your own campus internal politics and sometimes-restrictive lines of authority.
• Get information that will serve as a benchmark for your institution’s goals.
• Learn ways to support the integration of research and teaching in your department and on your campus.
• Learn how to nurture research and communications between departments.
• Learn how to support your faculty to increase their productivity as they do research with undergraduates.
• Use CUR’s resources to receive information on funding opportunities for institutional goals such as department-wide reforms, as well as funding for individual faculty research in your department.
• Disseminate your successes in undergraduate research to your colleagues.

• Network with colleagues from other parts of the country with similar problems.
• Take teams from your campus to CUR’s Institutes on How to Institutionalize Undergraduate Research, the Vital Faculty, Proposal Writing, and Mentorship, Collaboration and Undergraduate Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
• Learn about other faculty or administrators who are seeking (or are suitable for) new appointments in order to nominate research-supporting individuals for administrative posts on your campus.
• Learn how to reach out to the public and policymakers to get buy-in for undergraduate research at undergraduate institutions.
• Learn how others have developed local funding for undergraduate research programs.
• Learn about dissemination of undergraduate research through legislative poster sessions, undergraduate journals, and seminars.
• Publish the successes at your institution in the CUR Quarterly and gain recognition for your institution.

Gain access to Funders and Policymakers.

• Come to CUR’s April Dialogue to meet program officers of federal funding programs and federal science and education policymakers.
• Take advantage of CUR’s Consultants Program for departmental or divisional reviews.
• Gain access to speakers for faculty meetings who can address issues related to undergraduate research.
• Have a voice and an ear in Washington via the CUR National Office and the Executive Officer.
• Gain national exposure for your school by having your students participate in the "Posters on the Hill" program. This is an opportunity for senators and representatives to view the work of the undergraduates and faculty at your institution.

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Grants Officers and Undergraduate Research Coordinators

Let CUR help you do your job.

• Gain access to CUR’s database on grants opportunities geared for primarily undergraduate institutions.
• Learn how to institutionalize undergraduate research by attending CUR’s Institute on this topic. Take home a plan ready to implement.
• Participate with a team from your institution in CUR’s Proposal Writing Institute.

Expand your network of contacts.

• Meet colleagues who are also engaged in energizing a faculty to do research with undergraduates.
• Expand your contacts to presidents, faculty, and supporters of undergraduate research at other institutions.
• Participate in CUR’s listserv to ask specific questions of primarily undergraduate institutions.
• Attend CUR meetings and read CUR publications to hear of good practices and to develop resources for benchmarking at your institution.

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Gain visibility for your campus among your peers and the public.

• Enhance the status, prestige and visibility of your school as a publicly acknowledged proponent of undergraduate research.

• Support CUR’s effort to gain public appreciation of the value of undergraduate institutions.
• Support CUR’s effort to gain policymakers’ attention to undergraduate institutions' needs.
• Support CUR’s effort to encourage policymakers to include undergraduate faculty and administrators on national boards and committees.
• Support CUR in its efforts to increase national programs and funding for faculty and undergraduate student research at primarily undergraduate institutions.
• Support CUR’s information-gathering efforts for and by undergraduate institutions.

• Support an intellectually vibrant climate with informed, active faculty and engaged students.
• Find out how your institution can engage the local community in supporting undergraduate research.
• Form better alliances with other players (government, industry, K-12 schools)

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