Academic Summit: Celebrating Excellence in Teaching By Jackie Tisdell
Photo courtesy of ULM
Students get hands-on training at the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s atmospheric science lab. Onethird of National Weather Service forecasters in Louisiana are graduates of ULM.
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he University of Louisiana System has a long history of commitment to excellence in teaching and collaboration across its institutions. This spring those tenets culminated in the UL System’s first Academic Summit, a twoday conference that focused on undergraduate research, juried student art, and service-learning. “We have 94,000 students and over 9,000 faculty and staff at our institutions. This event was about showcasing the high caliber of work taking place, in many instances, outside of the classroom. It also afforded opportunities for our campuses to forge stronger working relationships with a system-wide approach to collaboration,” said UL System President Randy Moffett. Last year, Northwestern State University hosted the first UL System Undergraduate Research Day and Grambling State University hosted the sixth annual UL System Service-Learning Conference. Those two independent activities were combined into one Academic Summit to provide a richer experience for all involved.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
The National Council of Undergraduate Research defines undergraduate research as “An inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.” While the word undergraduate research may typically bring to mind the sciences, it is actually practiced across all major academic disciplines, as
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University of Louisiana System – Nine Universities Strong