Syracuse University may be moving closer toward achieving its goal of being a student-focused research institution.

The University Senate recommended at its Wednesday meeting that SU create an Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, which would oversee research opportunities and student awareness of those opportunities. The proposal was just one of five other recommendations made by the Committee on Research.

Dinesh Gauri, chair of the committee, said the proposal mirrored SU’s goals to “embolden research,” which was part of the draft strategic plan released more than a week ago.

“We wanted to know what the current state of affairs was and if there are any benchmarks or best practices that can be followed,” Gauri said.

The committee recommended that the university develop ways of showcasing students’ research findings, allocate funding for undergraduate research projects, include research opportunities in the undergraduate curriculum and create tools to assess what students learn through research opportunities.

During the “Day of Conversation” in February to update the university community on the progress of the Academic Strategic Plan, the working group on strategically focused research and doctoral programs also recommended the creation of a new undergraduate research and scholarship office.

A university-wide survey was sent out to monitor how schools and colleges engage undergraduate students in research projects, successful strategies for involving students in research and some of the problems faculty face in getting students to participate in research.

Nearly all schools and colleges responded to the survey, except for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Responders were notated as being either department-level or school/college-level individuals.

Gauri said a similar study was conducted by the Student Association in February. The study was sent out to both SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students and found that they could benefit from a grant program to fund research opportunities on campus and abroad, as well as other areas.

Seventy-seven percent of students who responded said they would participate in research if they were given the opportunity to, Gauri said.

Most responders said they’ve been able to successfully recruit students for research projects by incorporating the projects into the curriculum, promoting the projects as “prestigious,” including students in real research projects and by compensating students for their time on research projects.

Still, responders said there are difficulties in getting students to participate in research, such as “the struggle to find both meaningful and manageable research tasks for undergraduates.”

In other cases, some responders said the research opportunities just weren’t suitable for undergraduate students.

“I have not involved undergraduates in my research,” one responder, notated as department-level feedback, said in the report. “I almost always have graduate students, mostly Ph.D. candidates working with me, which is labor-intensive already.”

Some students remain unaware of research opportunities, while others haven’t had enough preparation in their curriculums to be ready for such projects. Other hurdles lie beyond the students’ ability — faculty availability, limited lab space and lack of financial support.

“When external funding is not available, it is difficult to get top-notch students without offering pay,” a responder from a college said in the report.

Published on April 15, 2015 at 11:15 pm

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu