Students wishing to spend leave terms engaged in on-campus research will soon find their financial burdens lightened considerably due to a recently-approved College program offering substantial grants to support undergraduate researchers.
In the past, limited funds have been available to support the travel and campus expenses of such students, but the new grants -- at $5,500 apiece -- will constitute a proper salary for research work.
"The idea is that if a student wants academic experience but needs to get a leave-term job to save up money, we would provide them with a job that pays the equivalent of a summer job to conduct research," Dean of Faculty Jamshed Bharucha said.
New faculty mentoring awards -- intended to recognize faculty who devote significant time and energy to advising students on a variety of issues outside of the classroom -- were announced alongside the research grants.
Honoring faculty members who have worked with students on topics as varied as honors theses and independent research, the awards will acknowledge areas of excellence "that typically do not get explicitly recognized," according to Bharucha.
A monetary grant will also accompany the awards, and faculty recipients will be expected to hold a seminar on the complementary roles of teaching and research.
Bharucha, whose office was responsible for the creation of the new programs, said that the student grants were necessitated by a desire to improve the overall undergraduate academic experience, particularly in the area of undergraduate research.
"We believe that opportunities for students to work one-on-one with professors in the actual act of discovery and creation is a very powerful learning experience," Bharucha said, noting that the grants were partly in response to Student Assembly's passage of the Undergraduate Teaching Initiative last term.
"We were delighted when the Student Assembly launched the UTI," Bharucha said. "We're pleased to be able to announce these initiatives in the same year that Student Assembly has announced its own initiative."
The UTI, which contained several Assembly-funded provisions for enhancing the quality of undergraduate instruction, also called upon the College to work to improve the undergraduate academic experience.
Student Body President Molly Stutzman '02 said she was "very pleased" by the announcement of the grants and teaching awards.
"We have met a few times with [Bharucha], and I believe that these two new programs very much complement the principles of the UTI," she said.
Bharucha, who said he had met on a regular basis with Assembly leaders over the past few months, explained that the programs had been formulated through an extensive academic planning process.
"We've identified a number of overall priorities," he said, citing expansion and strengthening of the faculty, enhanced support for research and greater opportunities for one on one interaction between students and teachers as areas of emphasis.
The new grants and teaching awards have been officially approved, but according to Bharucha, much logistical work remains to be done. If all goes according to plan, students should be able to apply for the grants by Spring or Summer term.
In addition to the two new programs, Bharucha said his office had plans to develop initiatives "directed at graduate students," but said such programs were not yet finalized.
Stutzman said she felt Student Assembly was "pleased with such an immediate response" on the part of the College to the recommendations of the UTI.
