The Week in UR - Friday, January 31

Happy Friday! A busy week in UR? Nay, “busy” is far from fitting. Frenetic, perhaps. That will do for now, I suppose. Or perhaps: It is as if the UR Program jetted down to the Cape and climbed aboard one of those sleek new rocket ships they’re building, and then launched itself up into the stratosphere. (“Oh dear, I hope it wasn’t the one manufactured by Boeing.”). And here are we, left amid a cloud of dust and soot, peering into a murky sky, and wondering where it all went. Because that’s how fast this program has moved these past few months. Now it feels that everything we’ve set in motion is barreling ahead of its own accord. And I, for one, am at times having difficulty remembering just everything that’s now been set in motion. But I’ll give it the old College try. So here goes. (But who says it’s unrefined to start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction?)

Of utmost importance is that the deadline for UR Fellowship applications is TODAY. The application entails little more than three questions about the research project. Nothing too onerous. So if you know of a student in need of a microscope, a software application, incentives for study participants, whatever a student might need for their research project, this will give them the money to do it. This is an excellent opportunity, both for students and the UR Program. If we can get just a few awardees this year, that will serve as a fine proof of concept. So please send any student or colleague that might be remotely interested to that webpage, which is, once again:

https://www.tsc.fl.edu/academics/academic-enrichment/undergraduate-research/undergraduate-research-fellowship/

I’m especially excited to share, on behalf of the UR Journal Committee, that the TSC Undergraduate Research Journal is now live on the Florida Online Journals platform! Please hold off on sharing information about the journal for now. The committee is still testing the platform’s functionality, and a big splashy launch is planned in the coming weeks. But I wanted to let you all know that this launch is imminent. I’ve said it before, but it must be said again: The launch of a peer-reviewed UR journal is a significant accomplishment, especially one as polished and professionally organized as ours now is. I don’t believe there is another community college in the country that has managed to do this, and the UR Journal Committee, expertly led by Niki Costantino, is to be commended. You can now view the journal live on the Florida Online Journals platform at:

https://journals.flvc.org/TSCURJ/index

And then there’s the symposium, lest we forget. And we shan’t. The abstract deadline is now but a baker’s dozen days away. As of this morning, we’ve got nine submissions, and I’m having to force myself not to hit refresh every other minute in Oxford Abstracts. The deadline is indeed looming. But I hear tell of lots of students crowding the STEM Center and the art studios working on abstracts and projects, and I have faith that they will, in the end, materialize as tangible submissions. As you’ve all likely seen by now, those fantastically irritating persistent message are back in Canvas, and you’ll see messaging go out on the College’s social media channels over the next two weeks. More significantly, the Public Relations and Workshops Committee hosted another abstract writing workshop this past Tuesday, and they’ll be hosting a three-peat of it this coming Tuesday. Teaching students to write an abstract has always been consequential in driving submissions, from what I’ve observed. Our eternal thanks are due to the Public Relations and Workshops Committee, ably led, as always, by our own Sam DeZerga. And remember that a complete schedule of workshops can always be found on our homepage: www.tsc.fl.edu/research

Finally, FURC is but a fortnight away, and I’m convinced that our seven student presenters have already got their shoes shined, their suits pressed, and that valise astride the front door. And hopefully they’re getting their projects done, too, lest we forget. But I have faith that they are; they seem quite a studious lot indeed. J.T. and I will be meeting with them next week to go over the logistics of travel and answer questions. And then, come the Feast of St. Valentine’s, we’ll climb atop our air boat and descend into the swamps of sunny South Florida for this the biggest celebration of UR this side of the Mason-Dixon (True fact!). The students’ excitement about FURC almost makes up for the fact that it starts on Valentine’s Day (What on earth were the conference organizers thinking, if anything?). Almost.

And with that, I’ll end this week’s installment of The Week in UR, leaving you all to your busking for alms of abstracts oe’r the hallowed halls of ye olde TSC (“Loyal we’ll ever be…” And now that will be the cognitive soundtrack that sings me into the weekend.) While you’re at it, busk a bit for UR Fellowship applications, and maybe a journal article or two. And then, with that done, I hope you all have yourselves a fine and restful weekend, which we all so desperately need at this particularly peripatetic time of the academic year.

Dan

The Week in UR – Friday, January 24

Hi All,

Well, wasn’t that a surprise. “Set a spell” Winter did, and my how he made himself right at home. By the looks of it, he was just pickled tink by that timeshare that I gifted him down on the Florabama Shore. That handsome matching speedo and halter top ensemble, in a striking American flag print, might also have made quite the impression. Made him a regular Pandhandler, it did. Might Winter winter in Florida on the regular? One can dream, I suppose. And scheme and bribe, most of all. Certainly good skills for UR practitioners to cultivate.

Splendid as this all was, however, it did come at just about the worst possible time for the UR Program. On Tuesday, the Public Relations and Workshops Committee was scheduled to host the second of two UR Symposium information sessions. Perhaps even more tragic was that our first ever event especially for faculty was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. And now that snow day has given way to snow week, we haven’t been able to reschedule the event to an alternate venue next week. Tragedy upon tragedy. And now there’s another earworm I’ll be onto for the next 48-72 hours.

But come next week, barring any more acts of God (Might I become a praying man?), we shall all be back upon that horse we call UR. The Public Relations and Workshops Committee will be hosting the second of two abstract writing workshops of the academic year, on Tuesday, from 2:00 to 3:00. The abstract writing workshop has been well-attended in the past, and I believe students find it very helpful as we approach the deadline for abstract submissions. More workshops are scheduled for the coming weeks. As always, they’re all hybrid events, and complete information is on the UR Program’s homepage: www.tsc.fl.edu/research.

And these events can’t come soon enough. The UR Symposium abstract submission deadline is just 18 days away, and the count of submitted abstracts has been sitting stubbornly at 7 for the past two weeks. And although my mantra is, “They all come in on the last day…They all come in on the last day,” I must confess that I’m growing a little nervous at this point. Now is the time for that final push to get students to submit those abstracts, because February 12 will be here before we know it. And you know what will be here even sooner? The deadline for UR Fellowship applications, which are due next Friday, January 31. That’s what. We don’t need to receive a whole lot of applications this go ‘round, but we do need to get that $2,000 out the door. So please keep up the pressure campaign, directing folks to our website for information about the fellowship and, now, all kinds of things.

One last thing before I sign off, please remember that we’ve got a meeting scheduled for this Tuesday, 2:00-3:00. In keeping with the will of all you fine UR Councilors, we will move all remaining meetings for the 2024-2025 academic year to a fully online format. There haven’t been too many takers for the in-person side of these hybrid meetings, which is fine; videoconferences have convenience in their favor, and that makes less work for moi, vis a vis scheduling meeting rooms and whatnot. I’ll be updating the meeting invitations accordingly. There’s not much on the agenda for Tuesday, as of yet, so please add anything you think we ought to cover. Here’s a link:

agenda ur council meeting 1-28-25.docx

With that, I bid you all a lovely, sunny, and now just pleasantly chilly weekend. We’re celebrating Chinese New Year at our house this weekend which, appropriately enough for us this year, heralds the arrival of spring. In fact, it’s more commonly called “Spring Festival” in China. (Because the more you know.) It also means that, come Monday, I’ll be about 15 pounds heavier from eating too many dumplings, and even more deaf than I already am from lighting too many firecrackers. If you’re in Bradfordville and you hear firecrackers coming from south side of town, it’s probably coming from our house. Because you now what they say: “There ain’t no firecracker like a Chinese New Year firecracker cuz a Chinese New Year firecracker don’t stop.” Not for a while, anyway, much to our neighbors’ dismay. But something tells me that, come Monday, they’re going to find a way to finally shut that dog up.

Dan

The Week in UR – Friday, January 17

Happy Friday! Could this be the most eventful Week in UR of the current academic year? Let me load that question into Oxford Abstracts and let you, good Council members, render your decision, just to overcomplicate things. But I’d bet a ha’penny that you’d agree…

This week saw the launch of the TSC Undergraduate Research Fellowship, what is surely the first research fellowship program at any community college anywhere in the country. Like ever. That is really something to celebrate, and we should be eternally grateful to the Research Mentoring Committee, with J.T. at its helm, for conceiving of this brilliant idea. Now the challenge is to get those applications in and get that money out the door, fast. We’ve got two weeks to do it, folks. The application deadline is Friday, January 31. So let’s talk this up in our departmental meetings, networks, newsletters, emails, whatever. Ring a bell and play town crier if you’re so inclined. I, for one, am dusting off my tricorne as I type! Most of all, share the following link to the very smart webpage that we’ve now got for this program at:

https://www.tsc.fl.edu/academics/academic-enrichment/undergraduate-research/undergraduate-research-fellowship/

While you’re at it, why not do some cryin’ about the UR Symposium abstract submission deadline? Lest we be a cryin’ come February 13. With just over three weeks remaining, the current count of submitted abstracts stands at 7. That’s not unusual this far out, to be sure, but I’ve always thought that a big public relations push at this point in the process is key to driving the submission count up. Now is also a good time for doing some person-to-person promotions, talking one-on-one with colleagues and individual students about the symposium and the valuable opportunity that it represents. That’s probably the most effective outreach we can do. And let’s keep driving traffic to our website, which seems to grow more polished and comprehensive with each passing day: www.tsc.fl.edu/research

And while you’re standing in someone’s office doorway prattling on about the fellowship and the symposium, whilst they pointedly eye that pile of ungraded papers teetering precariously atop the corner of their desk, why not squander a little more of their precious time and goodwill by hitting them up to serve as both moderators and adjudicators? We won’t know until we know, of course, but who knows? We might be swimming in student projects just yet, and then we’ll need all the help we can get. I’d like to get ahead of that before we get too close to the event. Volunteering is easy to do. Just forward them the link to the appropriate Microsoft Form (one of many!). Here’s that link again:

https://forms.office.com/r/KK0ZHpXL38

Need something else to nag your coworkers about? Well, we’ve got you covered! The Public Relations and Workshops Committee, ably led by our own Sam DeZerga, is hosting not one, not two…not even five or six, but SEVEN (count them, 7) student workshops in the coming weeks, on topics ranging from writing an abstract to creating a research poster. The first workshop of the spring semester will be a general information session about the symposium, to be held this coming Tuesday, January 21, from 2:00 to 3:00. Complete details are on our homepage, which I’m beginning to think might make a smart neck tattoo: www.tsc.fl.edu/research.

And if you really want to fill your colleagues with murderous rage, set a while longer and remind them that there’s still time (well, just a little) to register for the faculty lunch and learn event on Wednesday, from 2:30-3:30. Although registration technically goes through the weekend, we really should get those final registration in by today. Here’s that registration link one last time:

https://reg.learningstream.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0002-0030-3c73b7876a8945b4bec28a48adac9188

We got so busy during our meeting Tuesday that FURC didn’t even warrant a mention. But there is a little news to share. We’ve got seven students going, from all different disciplines, and they’ve all now received their acceptance notifications from USF, the conference host. Once again, the College is footing the bill for everything, and just about all those bills have been settled up. Here, too, J.T. deserves the credit for doing much of the organizational work. I’m just sending out emails and making up the darn cutest Excel spreadsheets you ever did see. It’s going to be a big conference this year, with nearly 1,000 student presenters expected, the largest FURC ever. It’s a big FURC-ing deal! So that’s exciting. Here’s that URL again in case anyone wants to have a look:

https://www.usf.edu/research-innovation/student-engagement/furc.aspx

And with all of that said, I’ll close on a serious note, for once. I wish you all the loveliest of long weekends, coming as it does at the end of what is always a hectic start to the spring semester. For my own part, I’ll be taking a little time this weekend to reflect on the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and what his example has meant in my own life, and how I’ve seen it at work of late. As some of you know, I’m a proud alumnus of Georgia State University, which includes the community college system that serves metropolitan Atlanta. Among the many things that I love about GSU is its long commitment to experiential learning, including service learning and undergraduate research, from which I benefitted greatly as a student. GSU’s main campus happens to be just a few short blocks from the birthplace, and now final resting place, of Dr. King. On occasion, inspired by my service learning experiences at GSU, I would take the short walk down to the King Memorial between my classes and sit and reflect a while on Dr. King’s life of selfless service. Often my thoughts would turn to my professors and how much their own legacy of service meant to me, as a struggling, impoverished college student, who also struggled academically. It’s what set me on the path to becoming a professor myself, and I’ve often tried to emulate them, as best I could.

But this weekend, what I will be reflecting on is this group of faculty, staff, and administrators that has worked so hard to build the Undergraduate Research Program at TSC. With no tangible incentive to do so, and precious little recognition, this group has built programming that offers TSC students myriad opportunities to present and publish their research, now extending beyond TSC’s campus, and even to have their research financially supported. What we have put into place, in a very short time, is nothing short of remarkable. Most importantly, it sends a strong message to our students that their work, their intellectual labors, are valued and respected. It tells them that they belong in the academy. It is so easy to discount the work that we are doing. But I see myself in so many of our students, as I know many of you do, as well. For me, that experience of having my imperfect work taken seriously, and celebrated, was vitally important. It’s probably what kept me in college. I know that what we have built here is every bit as meaningful to scores of TSC students. Regardless of whether submissions go up or go down, or whatever might succeed or go awry, we should all feel deep pride for engaging in this act of selfless service for our students. I feel certain Dr. King would be very proud of us.

Have a great weekend, everyone,

Dan

The Week in UR – Friday, January 10

Hi All,

Baby, it’s cold outside! I have to stop singing that so much around the house, lest I find myself out in the cold. Annie says a woman can only take so much. It is an ear worm. Lo, Winter has gone a wandering and found his way all the way down to the subtropics. I think he’s lost. But I hope he decides to set a spell because it is my favorite kind of weather: Clear and cool and just a little bracing. How little we see of it around these parts.

Even though it’s only the first week of classes (and barely just, starting as we did mid-week), it’s still been a busy and eventful Week in UR. For my own part, I’ve been busy anxiously monitoring the abstract submissions database. Our current count of submitted abstracts stands at six (6!) which, as many will no doubt recall, is 100% more than we’ve ever had at the start of the spring semester. I thoroughly anticipate that nearly all of the abstracts that we get will come in at, or very near, the last possible moment. That’s just the nature of this work, and it is uncomfortable waiting for them to roll in. But with all the work we’ve done to create awareness this year, I’m confident that they will, ultimately. I’ll start keeping everyone posted on the count of submissions with each subsequent edition of this little newsletter.

Please also circle Tuesday on your virtual calendars, where you’ve already got a meeting invitation for our first UR Council meeting of the spring semester waiting to pop up. As per usual, I’ve posted a draft agenda on Teams; feel free to add on to it. We’ve got a few important things to discuss on Tuesday. One is a process for reviewing the aforementioned abstracts. Again, I’ll be calling upon everyone to review their fair share of them. In reality, that shouldn’t be too onerous of a task, but it might require everyone to block out a few hours around the second week in February, just after the deadline. I’ll also briefly talk about the IRB approval process, and solicit feedback about how it might be improved. Here’s a link to the draft agenda:

agenda ur council meeting 1-14-25.docx

Also on the agenda will be a discussion about the brand spanking new Undergraduate Research Fellowship, which has now received formal approval from the TSC Foundation! To recap, students will be able to apply for small grants to cover expenses related to their research projects. An application is being finalized now, and it’ll be ready to roll out next week. The Research Mentoring Committee, chaired by J.T., has spearheaded this entire effort, and they are most deserving of our thanks for doing so. I’m not aware of another community college that offers this kind of opportunity to students. It’s a great thing to do for students, and it reflects incredibly well on the College.

Lastly, I just want to mention that the Communications and Workshops Committee, ably led by Sam DeZerga, will be hosting another UR Symposium Information Session on Tuesday, January 21, from 2:00 to 3:00. As always, this event will be offered both in-person and online via Zoom. Also as always, complete information is available on the UR Program’s homepage, at www.tsc.fl.edu/research. Please spread the word!

And now, having pilfered yet a few more precious moments of your fleeting lives, once again, with my rambling musings on UR, I will let my keyboard rest, and leave us all to huddle pitifully before our space heaters, as all North Floridians must do when the temperature dips below 65 degrees. I wish you all a pleasant weekend, swaddled beneath blankets with nary a paper to grade, nor an abstract to review. For the moment. Let us enjoy this briefest of moments. And might there be a little snow?? One can dream, I suppose…

Dan

 

The Week in UR - Friday, January 3, 2025

Happy New Year, Everybody! And what a gorgeous start to the new year it has been, cool and crisp and blue skyed. Very auspicious indeed.

I very much hope that your winter break was restful and rejuvenating, particularly because we are now entering the most wonderful time of year for undergraduate research. Spring semester is always abuzz with UR activity, both at TSC and around the country. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be hosting our first faculty professional development event, conducting workshops, launching the TSC Undergraduate Research Journal, and taking our first interdisciplinary group of students to the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC). And of course, our own UR symposium is fast (too fast) approaching. We’ll need everyone’s help to make all of this happen, so please everyone pencil in some time in your schedules to work on UR this semester. Please?

The first item that everyone can help with is the Lunch and Learn event for faculty, which is coming up in just under three weeks. To recap, this event is being hosted by the Research Mentoring Committee, and it will provide an opportunity for faculty to learn about the symposium, the roles of faculty mentors, and future opportunities for student travel and publication in the UR journal, among other topics. The event will take place Wednesday, January 22, in WD 105, from 2:30-3:30. Lunch will be provided! Please plan to attend if at all possible. Moreover, please promote the event to colleagues in your respective areas.

The second item that I’d really like for everyone to have top-of-mind is the complete and utter madness that will descend upon us in the coming weeks as we prepare for the annual UR Symposium. No exaggeration, really. As much as we try to plan ahead, there is much that just has to happen in the weeks immediately before the event. As far as I can tell, that’s just the nature of planning events, in general. Come February, we’ll really need all hands on deck to review abstracts, help with event setup, and probably some other various and sundry things that pop up. Assuming we have a large number of abstract submissions which, I think, is our fondest hope, everyone on this list will be assigned abstracts to review. This shouldn’t be too terribly time consuming, and more information will be forthcoming. For now, just be aware that this is on the horizon. This is probably also a good time to review key dates and deadlines related to the symposium, so here goes:

·         Abstract Submission Deadline: Wednesday, February 12

·         Abstract Review Window: Thursday, February 13 – Friday, February 21

·         Decision Notification Window: Thursday, February 13 – Friday, February 28

·         Artifact Submission Deadline: Wednesday, March 5

·         Faculty Mentor Approval Window: Thursday, March 7 – Friday, March 8

·         Symposium Setup Day: Tuesday, March 25

·         Undergraduate Research Symposium: Wednesday, March 26

Finally, I’m excited to announce that the IRB approval process for student research projects is now up and running! Well, as excited as a body can be about research administration. It is, I hope, a streamlined process that will impose minimal burdens on both students and their faculty mentors. The process is outlined on a new “Resources” that is now part of the UR Program website, and it can be accessed here:

https://www.tsc.fl.edu/academics/academic-enrichment/undergraduate-research/ur-resources/

As one final little post-script, I’d like to mention that, at the very excellent suggestion of one Council member, I’m going to start publishing “The Week in UR” to a blog, so that these messages are all stored in one repository. Here’s a link, which I’ve also posted to the Teams work group:

https://weekinur.blogspot.com/

That’s it for now, everybody, mercifully. I might consider changing the title of this newsletter to “The Never Ending Story.” But the need for such lengthy emails is a testament to how much activity this group has spawned in just a few short months, and that’s something to celebrate as we embark on a new year.

Dan