Undergraduate Research and Creativity Committee
Year End Report
TO: UW-L Faculty Senate
Submitted by: Keely Rees, Chair
1. Senate Charge 2011-2012
a. The Senate charged the committee with
o Although no special charge is being given to the committee this year,
should the membership wish to bring any policy issues to the
attention of the senate, it should certainly do so. Any
recommendations that the committee would like to make to the
senate should be submitted to our
office in a timely fashion.
No qualitrics…all on d2l
2. Funding for Undergraduate Research and Creativity
For the 2011-2012 year, URC had $123, 936 designated for two funding cycles.
The committee discussed and voted base on the previous years’ discussions to
increase International awards up to $3,000 (originally $2,100) This was also
possible due to the rearrangements of no longer funding the JUR editor.
3. The Grants Funded
a. The committee conducted a fall grants competition resulting in 35 proposal
submissions. Following extensive evaluation, 33 of the proposals were funded for a
total of $54, 872.
b. The committee conducted a spring grants competition resulting in 45 proposal
submissions. Following extensive evaluation, 38 of the proposals were funded for a
total of $72, 793.
4. 15th Annual UW-L Celebration of Student Research and Creativity
o Held on Friday, April 13, 2012.
o There were 87 Poster presentations, 27 Oral presentations, 7 exhibits.
o Food and beverages were provided at the Celebration using the
committee’s budget.
o Judging of presentations was carried out with teams of two (either a
faculty member and a student, or two faculty members) sent to
evaluate and score the presentations.
o There will not be a Celebration of Student Research and Creativity day
in 2013 as we will be hosting NCUR in the spring.
5. Process for the Submission of Grants
The committee made a change to the Undergraduate Research & Creativity Grant
submission process. Qualtrics is no longer used and considered secure. Students
must request to be enrolled in the Undergraduate Research and Creativity
Committee’s (URCC) D2L course by certain deadlines each funding cycle. Students
may request enrollment by emailing stdtresearch@uwlax.edu . Students must
submit their grants in a single PDF or word document via the D2L drop box. The
committee also made additions to the submission forms to include more
International information:
Checkboxes under International Grants
___ Study Abroad
___ Service Learning
___ Independent Project
Additionally the committee reviewed and voted on other allocations and changes to
include:
o Local travel to a study site further than 5 miles from campus can be
included
o Clearly state that equipment belongs to the department and books to
the library when the study is done.
o Non-fundable items include: Visas, course fees
o Up to $500 for conference registration and travel can be requested.
The committee also developed and voted on an evaluation /scoring rubric to be
used by the committee members when reviewing the proposals. We used it and
revised it for both the fall and spring cycles.
Lastly, the committee piloted a review process in the spring cycle, that allowed each
reviewer to read approximately 20 proposals, with each proposal each having 3
reviewer. After a cycle of this process, the committee revised and evaluated the
process for the fall 2012 cycle.
6. Mission of Undergraduate Research
The UR office developed and updated the mission in the summer of 2011, the
committee agreed:
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is dedicated to supporting research,
scholarly and creative activities by students in all academic disciplines. UW-L
aims to enhance this experience with institutional support for students and
faculty mentors. The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Program is
dedicated to fulfilling the UW-L mission of fostering curiosity and life-long
learning through collaboration, innovation and the discovery and
dissemination of new knowledge.
7. UR Grantwriting Workshop
The fall workshop was held on 9/27/11 and 2/23/12 and led by Scott
Cooper.
8. Additional recommendations from the committee:
o The committee really needs to have a Student Senator assigned
to this committee. For unknown reasons, we were not granted
a student senator either semester.
o The committee called for a standing committee time slot
appointed by Faculty Senate. Schedule across the disciplines
has been extremely difficult the last two years.