University of Mount Union
AC-10: Support for Research

The Brumbaugh Scholars program supports students engaged in summer environmental research associated with the University's Brumbaugh Center for Environmental Science. The students are selected by faculty mentors and they are compensated during their research. Their results are presented at both intra-institutional and external venues. The GIS class included projects that helped the city of Alliance map areas that were monitored and treated for mosquito control and another created an inventory of publicly accessible green spaces in the area. Another mapped the potential for wetland damage from the large Rover pipeline that is being constructed and there were others with environmental foci. Introduction to Environmental Science students participated in developing the campus arboretum by labeling additional trees with permanent tags. Current senior research projects are looking at how power transmission line ROW’s have influenced soil properties and creating a soils map for use in managing the Nature Center ROW for native plants. Another is looking at how the loss of ash trees from Emerald Ash Borer has influenced the Nature Center forest and how that recovery could be managed.

The Brumbaugh Scholars program mentioned above also engages faculty members to act as mentors for the students. The faculty members submit a research proposal and once it is approved, they select the students. The mentors also receive a stipend, in addition to the students.

The University Faculty Personnel Committee unanimously approved the following statement in December 2010. The statement was also approved by Dr.Patricia Draves, Vice President for Academic Affairs Recommendations for continuation, tenure and promotion are based on four criteria that are stated in our Faculty Handbook. Research comes under the second criteria, professional development, covered in Part A. section 2.c.(2)(b) which states “Scholarly activity is participation in one's field as a professional. This includes activities involving the production of original work, research leading to scholarly papers or books, creative work, presentations at professional meetings, participation in faculty development workshops and seminars, enhanced expertise in clinical work, etc.” Neither the statement in the handbook nor the longstanding practice of the Faculty Personnel Committee indicates that interdisciplinary research is valued differently than is disciplinary research. To the contrary our institution values and promotes interdisciplinary work and explicitly requires it of our students through the general education requirements.

The library supports a number of online services that provide access to research in sustainability related fields These include GREENR, HERO database, Environment Complete, ISI Web of knowledge, EJC, JSTOR and numerous other databases. Through a consortium of libraries in Ohio we also have access to a site license for ArcGIS. Every department and program has a budget for book and journal acquisitions. The Government documents librarian is helpful in identifying potentially useful documents and resources that arrive through that pathway.

Information from Dr. Charles McClaugherty on Student Research.