University Council Meeting: April 12, 2016
“How Undergraduates Contribute to UM’s Robust Research Environment”
A panel, moderated by UM Davidson Honors College Dean Brock Tessman
Total attendees: 25
UM Vice President for Integrated Communications, Peggy Kuhr, started with an announcement about next meeting, which will be a building update, held on Tuesday, May 3, in the new Gilkey Building.
UM President Royce Engstrom delivered an introduction about what a great week this is for UM and the role of undergraduate research. It’s so prevalent and important here at UM. “I probably wouldn’t be in the job that I am today if it weren’t for undergraduate research,” he said. He said it is central to what we do here at UM. He is delighted to see the undergraduate research conference growing. There was a time that he thought every student ought to be involved in undergraduate research. He has since modified that, but he does believe every student should be involved in something like that – an extension of the classroom, whether it’s an internship or some other real-world experience. But he hopes UM is always seen as a leader of undergraduate research.
Engstrom introduced his special guest, Candy Hill Clark, dean of education at Indiana State University and part of the Millenium Leadership Initiative, a program designed to help people make their way toward a university presidency.
UM Davidson Honors College Dean Brock Tessman, the moderator, began with an introduction. This year, his first year at UM, he has been pleasantly surprised how deeply rooted UM is in its research. At the University of Georgia, where he was previously, he said there were a lot of great researchers, but it was hard to get them interested in mentoring. Here we have the best of both worlds, top-notch researchers who also are very interested in mentoring the next generation of researchers.
Hope Radford, UM resource conservation major and Udall Scholarship winner, discussed her projects, which she conducted last year through a semester abroad in Argentina and Chile. Both projects focused on small farmers. She lived on eight farms over a 4-month period, conducting interviews and observation for 3 weeks for each farm. Exploring what small farmers think about climate change and how they perceive it, as well as how they’re adapting to it. She wanted to know: Do they perceive it with the same western view, or entirely differently? Research to her is “being there” with that sort of depth.
Tessman: How did you go from a student with dreams to actually making it possible?
Radford: She had an interest, and went to supervisors with a question.
Nicky Phear, climate change studies instructor and program coordinator: Hope had boldly shown interest as a freshman in sustainability and real foods. Hope had an increasing ability to take her interest and leadership to a global reach. Hope has unique sets of kills, boldness. She went to eight different farms. She also speaks Spanish, so she did a literature review in advance. She worked very closely with Steve Siebert as well, an international conservation and development professor.
Hope will present her research Friday at 10:40 a.m.
Ashley Alexander, UM sophomore from Twin Falls, Idaho, and biological sciences major, discussed her project next. She works with UM Professor Frank Rosenzweig to research the cooperative element an E.coli community.
Alexander: The first step of getting into a research lab was easier than she thought it would be. The professors here are very perceptive to students reaching out to them. She emailed Frank Rosenzweig after he was awarded his NASA grant for $8.2 million. The questions he was answering were very striking to her, and were questions she had herself when she started biology. She asked if she could volunteer in his lab, and Rosenzweig placed her as a lab assistant for a postdoc researcher. Because of the technology they were able to access, they had tools to better quantify their results than in 1980 when Rosenzweig developed the strains in this E.coli community. One strain is a higher concentration, and they expected to find that the dominant strain would be more fit to succeed. But they discovered that all strains are the same as far as fitness and the community itself is more fit together than any individual strain. So there was an advantage for the strains working together in a community. With the interesting result, they put together their own paper, submitted for review very soon. Being able to summarize it herself has been a great experience for her.
Tessman: After seeing Alexander present her research, she actually was able to communicate her message very well to the greater population, including to him as a political scientist. The lesson of Ashley’s research, is that the whole community is better off when they all cooperate over the longrun. Especially when there are scarce resources. We have these challenges at UM as well, and it goes to show that even at the very basic level, communities are better off if they find ways to work together.
Alexander: She was surprised that so many people were initially apprehensive to be able to understand about what she was presenting. But everything we do is a product of evolution, so it was satisfying to be able to explain the topic in a way that everyone could understand.
Sam Scott, UM senior from Tulsa, Oklahoma, majoring in geography and political science, discussed his research next. He works on regulatory policy of environmental issues with UM Professor Sara Rinfret.
Scott has had a wide range of opportunity in his last semester, even though it’s his first semester being involved in undergraduate research. He had great classroom educators. Had Professor Rinfrey, and her classes were the kind of classes he would leave having even more questions he wanted to explore.
Sara Rinfrey, who has a public administration background, was a policy analyst for the budget office. This is her third university, but UM has the best students. She was approached by Rebecca Connors, Missoula County’s elections administrator. Then, they developed a survey tool to poll Missoula County voters. Sam’s level of work is at the PH-level, and he is only an undergraduate. They were able to put together great results. She thinks it’s so important for students to move beyond the classroom to have practical application.
Tessman: It’s so nice to hear the variety here. We talk about what we’re doing for our students for the student experience. When you hear about these projects and you understand the way students have to improvise and analyze it, it’s really this idea of preparing students for unscripted challenges. In terms of demonstrating the types of skills we associate with a liberal education, it’s very important for a potential employer. For a good chunk of our students, undergraduate research is so important.
UMCUR is on Friday, all day, highlighting this research and more.
Questions:
UM Provost Perry Brown: You’ve all engaged in this experience. If you ran into another student who wanted a similar experience, what advice would you give them?
Alexander: Email whatever professor you’re interested in working with. She was initially surprised how easy it was to get into the lab, but didn’t realize that not many students approach professors on their own. I don’t know if I’ve heard of a professor not having time to invite students into their lab, and most are very excited.
Radford: I’ve been approached quite a bit about that, in fact, and I tell them to just find a question that you’re really passionate about. And one that is really a question for you. Then that will drive you to the jungle of Argentina. That research will be prenominal if the question is phenomenal.
Scott: Find that class that you continue to have those questions. I don’t think I’ve ever had a professor who would say “no.”
Phear: She has seen some amazing problems proposed by students. She encouraged them to ask those questions. We benefit our students to provide an opportunity to look at it through different lenses, disciplines. She has seen a lot of success for students exposed to interdisciplinary learning.
Audience member: One of the narrative lines I’ve been using this semester is the importance of the “residential experience.” I hear from each of your experience how you all are really “being there.” Whether it’s Argentina, the lab. Do you see this as a distraction or an add-on, or just something neat that you did? Or do you see it as more central to your time here?
Scott: I would say, starting my last semester, it’s a great way to transition into the workplace or wherever I will go. But also to have some concrete projects and results at the end of his time here. Having something to look back on and say it benefitted his community, that’s been valuable.
Radford: Mine is closely related to what I want to do. She got a position with small farmers in Guinea with the Peace Corps after graduation. First of all, having the international experience has given her experience with that. And being able to channel it into her career.
Alexander: The experiences you gain with an internship, that’s the reason you come to college, more than the classes you take. The ability to immediately apply what you’re learning or what you’re passionate about.
Tessman: I think it can mean something really different to different types of students. To me it seems like, for you, this is a way to demonstrate and pull together your inherent skills and classroom learning. And you’ll move on and this will be part of the toolkit you have. For Hope, it’s really question-driven. She wants to have her hands dirty. Being out there with people and research will always be an important part of that. Ashley, you are a lab rat, and so for you, you are a researcher, and it’s being in the lab and living in the lab. I don’t think all students will go to graduate school. Those who don’t go to grad school, research is still very important for them. That’s what’s really cool here.
Audience: Is research it an add-on, or is it central to the college experience?
Rinfret: The larger universities are so hands-off. She believes in paying it forward. It’s her favorite part of the job.
Phear: It’s central to what I do. Students get excited to see the possibilities. It’s not either/or. They complement each other.
UM Vice President for Research and Creative Scholarship Scott Whittenburg: The students are amazingly mature, certainly more than I was. It was terrifying to try to reach out to someone. Are these students the cream of the crop?
Alexander: I haven’t had an intimidating professor as of yet. She hasn’t met a professor on a higher horse than any students. She doesn’t see herself as being higher than any peers. There is a bell curve of course, in terms of maturity, but she feels they shouldn’t be afraid of contacting their professors.
Tessman: Lots of students never engage in service learning, but once they’ve done it once, they’ll do it again. I’d imagine if we had a way, an experiential gateway experience, they could use it as an opportunity to connect them into undergraduate research. It would be great if we could connect with the students.
Sam Scott: I think the best way to connect with students would be to have a professor start the relationship in the classroom.
Susan Cuff, UM Alumni Relations associate director: When I think of research, I get stuck in the sciences aspect, but what are the opportunities on the humanities side, what opportunities for research exist there?
Tessman: We had some great projects submitted for UMCUR, ranging from gender identity in Rocky Horror Picture show to a student working on a novel. One challenge, and this is a generalization, even as a political scientist, even though I had a large lab, there was nothing ready-made for a student who wanted to do research on foreign policy. The startup cost might be a little higher. That entails a lot of thinking and it’s in many cases different than a student who wants to research something already up and running. There may be a difference in time intensity with the humanities. That being said, there are ways to do it and there are many humanities going on.
Brown: Music, performances and visual arts all show tremendous examples of real-world learning. It’s not classical research format, but they have engagement that really is bringing them into the educational process in a very deep way.
Engstrom: When I taught general chemistry, at the first lecture of the class, he would say “if any of you are interested in research, come up and talk to me.” One student came up after one class and said she was interested. She came by the lab to conduct research through her four years, and was a coauthor on five papers by the time she graduated. After she graduated she became the CEO of her family’s business. Fast forward 25 years later, this woman came up to him and said this is my son, here, and he’s going to start at the University of Montana.
How do you get a student started? Some students come with a specific question in mind, others don’t. How do you get started in an undergraduate project in a field where you don’t have the full ocntecnt of what you’re doing?
Alexander: Frank is really good at that. I wish he could’ve been here today, because I think he’s one of the best mentors on campus and takes it very seriously. Pairing undergrads with graduate students is a great way. It’s been a great experience to learn their techniques and see what they’ve discovered from trial and error, a lot of the things the PIs might not tell you because they’re too distant.
Radford: One of the biggest barriers isn’t intimidation as much as it is, lack of empowerment. Students might struggle to feel like they can do it. Smaller projects in class are a great way to help them feel empowered, like you can do something. You start to realize you can set a goal and achieve it, meet with people in suits, you can interview people and they will be receptive. It helps make you feel you can move into a self-guided project.
Phear: It happens in the intro classes, brainstorming, spending time with students. She went for a two-hour walk with one of her mentors, which led to her project.
Rinfret: It’s the first year she has been an adviser for Global Leadership Initiative students, she also advises chemistry students.
Scott: It’s important to consider flexibility in the classroom, allowing for brainstorming to start in the classroom and transition out.
The meeting concluded.