KU News Release

KU intensifying efforts to get undergrads into research positions

LAWRENCE — Paulyn Cartwright was just settling into her new position as an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas when sophomore Kora Anderson showed up at her office.

Anderson asked for the opportunity to work in Cartwright’s lab as a research assistant, a position usually reserved for graduate students.

“She came here and sat down right there,” Cartwright said pointing toward her desk. “She said ‘I want to study marine biology,’ and I think I’d only been here a month myself.”

Now, a year and half later, Cartwright and Anderson have recently returned to KU from fieldwork off the coast of Panama.

“It’s a really good opportunity because I am an undergraduate, and I get to learn how to do fieldwork,” said Anderson, now a senior majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology. “It’s normally something that undergraduates don't get to do.”

A number of KU programs have offered research opportunities to undergraduates for years, but the concept is becoming even more widespread.

“I think the traditional idea of an undergraduate degree is ‘I go to classes, I sit there, the professor lectures to me, I take notes, I’m tested, and then that’s the culmination of my education,” said John Augusto, research training coordinator in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. “That paradigm has been broken for a long time.”

Since spring 2005, at least 350 undergraduate students have participated in sponsored research projects provided through Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the University Honors Program, the Self Graduate Fellowship Undergraduate Research Program, the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, the Dean’s Scholar Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Diversity in Science Training.

And that number doesn’t even reflect the many students who work for KU faculty members as undergraduate research assistants — as employees or volunarily.

Another effort under way at KU is its new Research Experience Program, designed specifically for undergraduates. The first 90 students to complete the program received certificates during the 2005-06 school year. The goal of the program is to recognize the research training undergraduates receive at KU with a formal entry on their transcripts.

Each year, KU also hosts a number of programs that bring high ability undergraduates from throughout the country to Lawrence for summer research programs.

“I had taken a genetics course and learned a lot about the procedures and methods behind the research,” said Tessa Howard, a junior at Bethany College who participated in the Self Graduate Fellowship’s Summer Undergraduate Research program at KU. “But I wasn't really sure what went on during research. Now I know.”

Howard’s faculty director, James Orr, professor of molecular biosciences, said his lab relies heavily on undergraduate researchers throughout the year.

“They can be significant contributors,” he said. “They can be energetic and they want to learn.”

This summer the Self Graduate Fellowship program partnered with multiple science departments to fund 45 undergraduate students conducting research. In July, the program held a symposium to highlight the students’ work.

Augusto says KU has intensified its efforts to promote undergraduate research. He thinks students who make good grades and take their learning experiences outside the classroom have an advantage in graduate schools and later employment.

“KU really emphasizes undergraduate research, and they encourage us to us take people (undergraduate students) into the lab setting,” Cartwright said. “They realize it’s a very important part of their undergraduate education.”

“Undergraduate research isn’t limited to the laboratory sciences,” Augusto said. “For example, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research has supported undergraduate student researchers in the humanities, arts and social sciences. All of these areas of research are more important to KU and important to our students.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.