NCUR Letter from Dr. Snow and Dr. Dutch

Dear College of Medicine Faculty,

In our continuing effort to keep the College of Medicine informed about the 2014 National Conference on Undergraduate Research http://www.cur.org/ncur_2014/, which will take place here at UK on April 3 – 5, please note the following ways to encourage student participation:

 1) Last fall, the University Senate voted to “redirect all classes” on April 3-4. "Redirection" means that faculty for all classes (NOT just the ones held in classrooms being used for NCUR) are strongly encouraged to not hold regular class time, but instead, release all students to participate in NCUR.

2.  While not required, faculty can choose to make class assignments, such as attending specific talks, posters or simply volunteering. Volunteer opportunities will be available online in mid March. Watch for information about how and when your students can sign up.

3.  Attend with your students and discuss.  The NCUR website lists the wide variety of activities taking place during the conference.  Consider going with your class to attend a Plenary session, oral presentations, posters, an open house, or student interest session, among others.  Follow up with discussion.  Share your research path and career decisions with your students.

Faculty, also be aware there are Faculty-Administrator Network (FAN) sessions throughout the meeting to talk about issues related to mentoring, managing and fostering undergraduate research and education.

We look forward to see you at the conference!

Rebecca Dutch
Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
Associate Dean for Biomedical Education

Diane Snow
Professor and Endowed Chair, SCoBIRC
Co-Director, NCUR
Director, Undergraduate Research