The Committee for Undergraduate Research is working on making undergraduate research more visible to the Loyola community. “Undergraduate research is a very effective way of teaching undergraduates. It’s been going on for years; it is well established in the sciences and other departments. But we would like for the research to be more visible,” said Maria Calzada, committee member and associate professor of mathematics.

“Undergraduate research helps professors undertake research projects, it gives students a story to tell about their undergraduate experience, it has been attributed to higher retention rates. It is a win-win for everyone involved,” Calzada said.

“Undergraduate research can be defined as any collaborative work between a professor and student. It can also be called collaborative research,” Calzada said.

The College of Humanities and Natural Sciences has created a website for undergraduate research called Collaborative Research Enhancing Our Loyola Experience.

“This is what HUNS is using as advertisement, and for publicizing the fact that we want students to do research with professors. The website publicizes what students and professors are doing and what they’ve done,” said Mary MaCay, English professor.

“Our goal is to help students find ways to do research with professors. This will enhance student and professor work,” McCay said.

“I think most students don’t appreciate the infrastructure we have for research here. We want to work for better support of undergraduate research,” said Thomas Spence, associate professor of chemistry.

“This year we had students present posters of their research at the President’s Open House. We want to show possible students that undergraduate research is important to us. This is the first time we have done this,” Spence said.

“Also, we are in the midst of hiring a director of Grants and Research. Their job would be to span all departments and provide professors support for conducting undergraduate research. I hope they would also become more involved with programs that the National Council for Undergraduate Research offers,” Spence said.

“In addition, next year we will have several events sponsored by the provost office, with faculty presenting their experiences in working with undergraduates on research and scholarship projects,” Calzada said.

“The idea is to get the word out so that more and more faculty participate in undergraduate scholarship. We are also planning an end-of-the-year award for a faculty/student collaborative scholarship team,” Calzada said.

Yvonne Cappel-Vickery can be reached at [email protected]