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Background
The central mission of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is to promote research by undergraduate students in all settings of science, mathematics, and engineering education (SMET) and to strengthen the research programs of faculty in predominantly undergraduate institutions. We believe that education is best served by faculty-student collaborative research combined with investigative teaching strategies. We work with federal agencies, including NSF, to develop and maintain research-based educational opportunities.
In the past several years, NSF has held two competitions that speak to the heart of the CUR mission: Recognition Awards for the Integration of Research and Education (RAIRE) and Awards for the Integration of Research and Education at Baccalaureate Institutions (AIRE). Most of the AIRE award winners are CUR institutions, and we have helped them to disseminate their successes to the broader educational and research community. CUR congratulates NSF for making this opportunity available to (a) help good programs move to a higher level of achievement, and (b) provide avenues and funding for widespread dissemination and adaptation of successful programs.
It was wise for NSF to divide the program by institutional type. Having run successful programs specifically for the research universities and the baccalaureate colleges, it is now time for NSF to make this program available to the third major type of American academic institution: the Comprehensive University.
What is the Comprehensive University?
Comprehensive universities are academic institutions that offer a full range of baccalaureate programs and that are committed to graduate education through the Master's Degree. Many of these institutions continue a tradition of educating substantial numbers of the nation's K-12 teachers. However, today they have evolved into universities with a variety of constituents and programs.
The majority of the nation's students who are members of populations underrepresented in SMET -- African Americans, Hispanics, recent immigrants, and non-traditional students -- attend comprehensive universities (see appendix). Most of our first generation college students attend comprehensive universities, as do women returning to school after having started families, and persons returning to education after military service. Many comprehensive universities have a significant commuter population.
Comprehensive universities are generally much larger than baccalaureate colleges, with student populations of about 4,000 to more than 30,000 students. They range in complexity from private universities (e.g., Trinity University) to geographically isolated public institutions (Angelo State University in Texas) to urban campuses (California State University - Los Angeles; University of Michigan - Dearborn) and historically black universities (Morgan State). Many are members of large state systems (e.g., the La Crosse and Eau Claire campuses of the University of Wisconsin).
These institutions have in common a need to educate students for local employment, because many of their students are bound to the geographic area for financial and personal reasons. Many comprehensive universities have relatively low tuition and less selective admission requirements, thus providing opportunity for students who could not otherwise attend an institution of higher education. They tend to have large class size, especially in introductory classes, compared with baccalaureate colleges. In many states, their faculty are under pressure from administrators and state legislators to maximize hours in the classroom, and to adopt distance learning, neither of which may be suitable for optimum student learning in SMET fields.
Comprehensive universities have important strengths. They use their human diversity to advantage in the educational process. Many of their faculty members are dedicated to both teaching and research. They are involved in research projects supported by a full range of funding sources, including NSF, NIH, NASA, and many private agencies such as the W.M. Keck Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Undergraduate research is alive and well at comprehensive universities, many of which have student undergraduate research poster or presentation events. The quality of work exhibited at these events is fully competitive with that at other types of academic institutions. Many comprehensive universities have received highly competitive grants that focus on the quality and productivity of undergraduate research including NSF-Research at Undergraduate Institutions and Beckman Scholars awards. In fact, a true combination of research and teaching is more likely to be the mission at comprehensive universities than at either research or baccalaureate institutions.
The contribution comprehensive universities make to the U.S. scientific workforce is substantial. More undergraduates are educated at comprehensive universities (3.187 million) than any other category of academic institution except two-year colleges. In the year 1995, comprehensive universities awarded over 31% of U.S. bachelor's degrees in the sciences (NSB, Science and Engineering Indicators, 1998 edition). The NSF/SRS Survey of Earned Doctorates revealed that 12,589 individuals who received doctoral degrees between 1991 and 1995 in SMET disciplines received their baccalaureate degrees from comprehensive universities. This represented more than 16% of the total science and engineering doctoral degrees awarded and was comparable to the productivity of baccalaureate institutions (15%) and surpassed that of doctoral institutions (11 %). In some disciplines, the contribution of comprehensive universities was greater; 23 % of doctoral recipients in chemistry and 19 % of those in the physical sciences, in general, earned their bachelor's degree from a comprehensive university.
Comprehensive universities are accustomed to being asked to "do it all" with limited resources. Faculty members often have research relationships within the local community --- local corporations, other academic institutions, or community services organizations. Some students come to a comprehensive university with greater maturity, and with a focused professional goal. Educational experimentation is an important part of the teaching experience at a comprehensive university. In sum, the comprehensive university is a fundamental part of the American academic scene.
The Purposes and Goals of an AIRE for Comprehensive Universities
The AIRE guidelines for Baccalaureate Institutes state: "It is critical that baccalaureate institutions provide an undergraduate experience that is rooted in inquiry and discovery." CUR would say that this is a critical need for ALL academic institutions. For research universities, where the research element is strongly in place and well funded externally, this goal is met by beefing up the teaching component. In the premiere baccalaureate institutions, where small class size and individual attention are already hallmarks of undergraduate education, the goal is met by improving undergraduate access to research. It is no less important at comprehensive universities to address this goal, and many schools already have done so with success by improving both elements together. Therefore the first purpose of an AIRE competition for comprehensive universities is one of FAIRNESS. There is no rationale that CUR can see for leaving these institutions out.
A second goal for a comprehensive university AIRE competition would be to reach out to underrepresented groups. An AIRE for comprehensive universities would not merely give lip service to broadening the scientific pipeline, but would showcase institutions that are using undergraduate research and other investigative teaching strategies to entrain minorities and other underrepresented groups in the sciences and engineering professions.
A third goal for a comprehensive university AIRE program would be to facilitate SMET education for future K-12 teachers. Most K-12 teachers are educated at comprehensive universities; for example, the California State University system alone prepares 60 % of California's teachers and 10 % of teachers credentialed nationwide. AIRE guidelines could be drafted to focus on pre- and in-service teacher training using investigative teaching methods and exposure to research.
A fourth goal would be to educate students in science and technology who will remain in their home communities and will not go on to advanced training. Many of those students will find technical and scientific jobs within the local workforce in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, aerospace, computer science, health care, and other key fields. An AIRE for comprehensive universities should emphasize connections with local industry to provide internships, research experiences, and jobs for graduating students. A major goal would be to help universities connect with their communities and to augment a much needed sector of the scientific workforce.
Comprehensive universities are a resource for research on teaching and learning. AIRE awards to comprehensives might provide an opportunity for a focus in this area. A key goal of an AIRE for comprehensive universities would be to demonstrate how research and education could be integrated when classes may be large (although not as large as those typically found in research universities) and where many disadvantaged students find it difficult to succeed in demanding introductory classes, particularly chemistry, calculus, and physics. These constraints must be met with special pedagogical skill. Since faculty members from comprehensive universities often have heavy teaching loads and little funding for travel to meetings, visible role models are particularly important. Conversely, it is important that those who are successful get proper recognition for their work and have the opportunity to disseminate their successes.
AIRE for Baccalaureate and Comprehensive Schools: What is the Same?
Much of the program guideline text for AIRE/baccalaureate institutions could be applied to the comprehensive schools --- for example, the NSF vision statement for the future and the characteristics that mark academic institutions that are committed to the integration of research and education. It would be a mistake to set the bar lower for comprehensive universities, or to think that research, to be good, must be done somewhere else. We need to build research and educational infrastructure right within the comprehensive universities and their communities, not in some distant [and elite] environment. We need to reward the best programs of their kind now, just as was done for the other types of schools. We should celebrate the progress that is being made, regardless of the type of academic institution and its constraints.
Conclusion
The challenges of combining research and education at comprehensive universities are different from those at either baccalaureate or research institutions. This is the reason for establishing separate competitions and not ignoring these schools that educate a majority of American undergraduates. Indeed, the lower national recognition level for success at comprehensive universities is all the more reason why NSF should focus on these institutions now, to encourage further success. We urge that Congress help NSF institute an AIRE-like program for comprehensive universities. CUR is willing to provide background information on the types of successes that we see in these schools, as well as their special needs.
Appendix
Ethnic Distribution of Students: What is the Contribution of Comprehensive Universities to training Students from Underrepresented Groups in STEM?
Data were extracted by Don Coan of Cal State Long Beach (2000, personal communication) from 1997 IPEDS Survey data, and reworked by E. Hoagland to calculate the percentages shown below.
The following data were calculated based upon a table of the number of students attending research universities, comprehensive universities, and liberal arts colleges (using the 2000 Carnegie classification scheme). Students were subdivided by sex and by ethnic group (Black Non-Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Hispanic, White, and Unknown). For the purposes of these calculations, the unknown category was ignored.
Comprehensive Universities contain the following percentages of the total number of ethnically-identified students:
| |
Men |
Women |
Both Sexes |
| Black Non-Hispanic |
52% |
56% |
55% |
| Hispanic |
53% |
56% |
55% |
| Native American |
48% |
52% |
50% |
| White |
41% |
47% |
45% |
| Asian |
34% |
36% |
35% |
| |
|
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| Total student body |
43% |
49% |
46% |
Percentage of today's undergraduate students who are female: 56%
Percentage of today's undergraduate students who attend:
| Research Universities |
38% |
| Comprehensive Universities |
46% |
| Baccalaureate Colleges |
16% |
These numbers demonstrate that opportunities denied to comprehensive universities are being denied to slightly less than half of today's undergraduates. The loss of opportunity disproportionately affects women, blacks, and Hispanics, all of whom are over-represented at comprehensive universities. While 46% of the overall undergraduate student body attends comprehensive schools, 49% of women, 55% of blacks and Hispanics, and 50% of Native Americans do so.
Asians, on the other hand, are under-represented at comprehensive universities (35%) and over-represented at research universities. 57% of Asian students, 26% of blacks, 36% of Native Americans, 36% of Hispanics, and 39% of whites attend research universities.
These numbers do not include two-year colleges, trade schools, and colleges in Carnegie categories other than those described above.
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