Running an office of undergraduate research:

summaries of budgetary and personnel structures of existing offices

Dr. Mary Crowe, Dr. John Cavitt, Dr. Jennifer Cook,

Dr. Dwight Dimaculangan and Dr. Karl Sienerth

Where to begin?

• Learning from others– Gleaning information from websites

• NDURE- Network of Directors of Undergraduate Research Experiences– www.ndure.org– Budget, structure surveys

A caveat

• Range of budgets is quite large– LOW $3k– HIGH $750,000

• MISSION, OBJECTIVES

Database

• N=45 for this presentation– A variety of institutions have been sampled

• Controlling for size and mission

Typical activities for an OUR

• Celebration days

• Stipends

• Travel

• Workshops

• Journal

Celebration Days

• Data only from the NDURE survey (n=28)

– Program, book of abstracts– T-shirts– Food– Awards– External speaker(s)

Celebration Days

# of undergraduate students

Average Low High

0-1,000 (n=3) 10,000 1,000 15,000

1,000-5,000 (n=6) 8,500 500 25,000

5,000-10,000 (n=5) 1,800 500 2,000

10,000-15,000 (n=6) 914 500 2,000

>15,000 (n=8) 7,600 500 25,000

AY student stipends

• N=45 from websites and survey

• 30/45 provide stipends– Average $1,556– Range $500-$5,000

Summer stipends

• N=45 from websites and surveys

• 11/45 provide summer stipends

• Average $2,527

• Range $1,000- 4,000

• Housing/External Funding

Student travel

• N=45 from websites and survey

• ALL provide travel

• Average $637

• Range $100-1000

Faculty stipends

• N=45 from website and survey

• Few (<7) schools offer stipends for faculty

• Low of $300 high of $2,500

Other costs

• Staff salaries

• Publicity

• Travel to NCUR meeting

• Faculty travel to meet program officers

• Peer advisors

Where does funding come from?

• Internal– Line item – Endowment – Technology Transfer fund– Revenue generating– Student fees

• External– Grants, annual corporation contribution,

alumni donations

Running the office

• N=45 from– Searching the web– Answers to detailed on-line survey

• 2/3 of offices are run by some one with a PhD– Searching the web– Answers to detailed on-line survey

Running the Office- staffing

• N=15 from on-line survey

• 11/15 report to Vice President or Associate Vice President

• Who works– 66% student workers– 80% have administrative assistant– 27% have at least one associate director

Running the office- assessment

• N=15 from survey

• All assess, 80% do so annually

• What do they assess?– Proposal pressure– Satisfaction surveys