by Rachael Hanel ’97,’04
Rainy, gray skies enveloped Minnesota State University, Mankato on a Monday morning in late April. As finals week approached, both students and faculty seemed focused on the work to be done in the weeks ahead.
The quiet mood on campus disguised the activity brewing inside the Centennial Student Union that morning. There, well-dressed, professional men and women presented the results of months, sometimes even years, of research. Topics ranged from the sexualization of female athletes to nontraditional students and computer skills and the genetic differences among natural river otter populations in Minnesota.
But these weren’t faculty presentations. They weren’t even graduate student presentations. At this conference, under-graduate students -- twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two years old -- did all the work.
The presentations were part of MSU’s seventh annual Undergraduate Research Conference (URC), which began in 1998 as a way to encourage undergraduates to get involved in research. Such conferences already existed at other universities, and faculty wanted to establish a similar commitment to research at MSU. Mary Visser, a professor in the Human Performance department, attended a conference to learn more about URCs and then chaired MSU’s conference from 2000 to 2003.
Faculty play an integral part of the process. Each student works closely with a faculty member to develop projects and do research. Professors also serve as judges and encourage students to participate.
"A lot of faculty work hard to make it a go," Visser says.
Dr. Marilyn Hart, who has chaired the conference for the past two years, says one goal is to foster a connection between mentor and mentee.
"It’s invaluable for the faculty and students. It’s an intimate relationship. The faculty mentors really know these students," Hart says. "It strengthens the whole University."
Scott Olson agrees. The vice president for Academic Affairs told conference attendees at a luncheon that the administration naturally throws its support behind the URC. "Every faculty member treasures research," he said. "Going through that experience with students is a wonderful experience for the University."
When Hart took over in 2004, she wanted faculty to promote undergraduate research in all disciplines. Too often, she noted, research is thought to apply only to the scientific disciplines. Hart herself is a biology professor, but she recognized the importance of involving all departments on campus.
The effort paid off. The 2005 URC featured many more projects from across campus. Science, engineering and technology still claimed the most projects at forty-seven, but there also were thirty-five projects in the arts and humanities (compared to just nineteen the year before) and thirty-two in social and behavioral science (twenty-four the year before).
Leah Anderson, an art and anthropology double major, focused her research on student and faculty artists at MSU. She conducted in-depth interviews with twenty-one people, asking them what motivates their art. She’s already thinking of ways to expand her project into a journal article or perhaps even a book.
"It looks good to have this experience," she says. "If I decide to go on for my MA or PhD, I’ll be less stressed out."
Anderson’s comments echo precisely why the URC was established in the first place. The main goal, Visser says, is to get students hooked on research as undergrads. That experience benefits them in many ways. "This sets them apart from other students out there looking for the same jobs," she says. "It’s so powerful."
Steven Sullivan, who participated in the conference for the third time this year, knows that firsthand. This year, his project focused on genetics, proteins and DNA. The biology and psychology double major is headed to the neuroscience PhD program at the University of Minnesota. While interviewing for different schools, he was told that graduate programs like getting students from smaller schools because they’ve usually had valuable one-on-one time with professors, plus hours and hours of lab time.
"They like to know that it’s not all theory," Sullivan says. "Here you get hands-on experience in the lab."
Hart said these "dynamos" doing undergraduate research get a chance to shine here. At a larger university, they might get lost in the shuffle. Sullivan and many other URC alumni are getting into top-ranked graduate programs every year, Hart says.
Visser counts the development of the Conference, and the students who participate in it, as one of her most important accomplishments at MSU.
"One thing that I’m most proud of in my time here is that I helped to get this going," she says.
Rachael Hanel is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to MSU’s TODAY magazine.
