Last week, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler (Associate Professor, Psychology) and Karl Sienerth (Associate Professor, Chemistry and Director, Undergraduate Research Program) participated in the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR, www.cur.org) Annual Business Meeting at Hamilton College near Syracuse, NY. Vandermaas-Peeler was elected to the Council in the Psychology division in Fall 2006, and will serve through summer 2010. Sienerth was elected to the Council in the Chemistry division in fall 2005 and will serve through summer 2009. In summer 2005, the Council voted to create the Undergraduate Research Program Directors (URPD) division and Sienerth moved to URPD to assist in getting it started.
Both Vandermaas-Peeler and Sienerth were elected as secretary in their respective divisions, with duties to include maintaining meeting minutes, facilitating communication within the division, and generating and disseminating a divisional newsletter. Sienerth also serves on the Constitution and By-laws committee of CUR, which will be involved this year in making changes related to the Executive Board’s more significant governance authority and to the charge by the Council to make election procedures more transparent to the membership.
The 2008 meeting will include the biennial National Undergraduate Research Conference. Elon faculty members interested in developing presentations, workshops, or interactive sessions for the 2008 meeting should contact Sienerth (sienerth@elon.edu) or Vandermaas-Peeler (vanderma@elon.edu).
Faculty interested in becoming members of CUR and/or standing for election as councilor should contact Sienerth (sienerth@elon.edu).