Council on Undergraduate Research

St. Catherine University is pleased to be a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).

St. Kate's joins nearly 492 colleges and universities who support CUR's committment to undergraduate research.

CUR advocates the benefits of undergraduate research before state legislatures, private foundations, government agencies, and the U.S. Congress, arguing that undergraduate research

• Enhances student learning through mentoring relationships with faculty
• Increases retention in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline
• Increases enrollment in graduate education and provides effective career preparation
• Develops critical thinking, creativity, problem solving and intellectual independence
• Develops an understanding of research methodology
• Promotes an innovation-oriented culture

CUR offers a number of workshops for faculty and staff on issues that pertain to faculty-student research and grant-seeking.

Efforts to develop a comprehensive program of undergraduate research at SCU have been underway for quite some time. In February 2008, a team of SCU faculty and staff attended the CUR Institute for Institutionalizing and Sustaining Undergraduate Research at Biosphere II in Tucson, Arizona to discuss strategies for promoting undergraduate research at St. Kate's. An additional team of faculty and staff attended the CUR National Conference Frontiers and Challenges in Undergraduate Research at the College of St. Benedict in June 2008. In November 2009, a team of faculty and staff attended a CUR Institute in Moorehead, MN to develop a plan for implementing a new institute for undergraduate research.