A Message from the Dean: February 2020
During a recent prospective student event held on campus, a staff member engaged a number of visiting high school students in a conversation about our campus and about what they had learned during the day. This particular group of students commented that they had been previously unaware of the amount of research that took place on our campus. They had, in fact, believed us to be no different than a teaching-focused community college. This discovery inspired them to want to know more about our campus and to place us on their list of universities to apply to; something they had not been considering before this visit.
The exchange, which I overheard, only reinforced for me what we have all known for a long time; high impact learning practices such as mentored research are critically important recruiting and retention tools. Access to these sorts of experiences sets us apart from our peers and make the UM-Dearborn CASL experience so unique.
Indeed, as our Natural Sciences Chair Sven Morgan recently reported, over the last “10 years, 176 UM-Dearborn undergraduates have been co-authors in peer-reviewed, quality journal articles with our Natural Sciences faculty. That is almost 18 undergraduates per year who leave here as published authors in the sciences!”
This, of course, is but one example of the quantity (and quality) of student research activity going on here in CASL, but It speaks volumes about the impact that this work can have. The college is eager to expand these opportunities to ensure that any student who might want to participate in a research-based opportunity will be able to do so.
Thanks to all of my colleagues who have made it part of the college’s culture to work with our students in this manner.
- Martin Hershock, Dean