March 13, 2007

Undergraduate Research Conference

Among the many important events we hold on our campus is the annual Undergraduate Research Conference (URC), which takes place this year on April 13. There is high-quality research being done at Butler and other universities across the Midwest, and I encourage everyone to take some time that day to see the posters in Holcomb or attend one of the many presentations held across campus.

Butler has sponsored the Undergraduate Research Conference for 19 years, and it has become the largest conference of its kind in the Midwest. More than 400 students will present their work again this year. Students from as far away as Brigham Young and Lehigh universities have presented papers in anthropology, art history, biology, business administration and economics, chemistry, communication (speech and journalism), earth science, education, foreign languages, gender studies, history, international studies, literature, math and computer science, media arts, performing arts, pharmacy/health science, philosophy and religion, physics, political science, professional development, psychology and sociology.

At doctoral universities, professors work mainly with graduate students on research. By contrast, undergraduate faculty-student cooperative research is one of the fundamental advantages that a small institution like Butler can offer its students. The URC is part of a larger undergraduate research movement replicating papers and poster sessions that would be presented at professional conferences. Indeed, occasionally research initially presented at such student conferences leads to publication in a professional journal. Butler student Ryan Chavis was encouraged by his biomedical ethics professor to survey laws related to feticide and abortion. Ryan classified state feticide laws according to the philosophical positions represented. He presented the results at an academic conference where a philosophy professor from another university asked his permission to use the work in class.

Undergraduate research had its genesis in the natural sciences, where faculty would include students in their own research projects. For many years, there have been federal grants specifically designated for faculty-student cooperative research.

Over the years, the concept of faculty-student cooperative research has expanded beyond the natural sciences to the social sciences, the humanities, the arts and the various professional schools. But essentially, it's rooted in the idea that the best way to understand a discipline is to do the discipline – to be a practitioner. And the advantage it gives to many of our undergraduates is that by the time they apply for graduate or professional school, or go into industry, the techniques involved in the discovery or application of knowledge are something with which they are familiar.

Faculty-student research is a paradigm that is characteristic of the best liberal arts colleges and master's universities. I think the URC will continue to undergird the high academic reputation of Butler University.