Faculty, student research effort presented to regents

By Jessica Bock
UW-Eau Claire Advanced Reporting Student
Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 

Both UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Donald Mash and UW System regent JoAnne Brandes agree it's imperative for the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to see the value and importance of faculty and student collaborative research projects.

Provost and Vice chancellor of Academic Affairs Ron Satz, along with three groups of faculty-student teams, gave a presentation about UW-Eau Claire's collaborative research projects Thursday afternoon during the education committee meeting in the Council Fire Room of Davies Center. 

"It was my favorite part of the day," Brandes said. "Anytime I see students involved in a presentation and see their reaction is great."

Items such as faculty-student collaborative research are partially funded by differential tuition, which annually provides UW-Eau Claire with about $950,000 of additional funding to support enhanced student experiences. For 2002-03, faculty-student collaborative research is expected to get about 30 to 35 percent of that amount. 

About 40 percent of funding for the Center of Excellence, which is in charge of funding for faculty-student collaborative research, comes from differential tuition dollars. The Center has received about $500,000 from internal funding in 2001.

The presentation Thursday showed how the research is a win-win situation, Brandes said.

"Students get the experience and the community and state get resources from their findings," she said. "It's outstanding." 

Seeing the effects of programs and knowing how much students value things like faculty and student collaborative research makes it much easier to understand, she said.

That way, the board can support that concept and the funding, Brandes said.

Because of the benefits involved for students, faculty-student research is a great example of co-curricular activity on campus, Mash said.

"It's just one of the things that bring additional value to a student's learning and personal growth," he said.

Hopefully, the board will continue to support UW-Eau Claire in its research because they understand the benefits, he said.

"This is real research that benefits people and communities," he said. "It has an impact."