San Diego City College was honored to be selected in 2008 by the national Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) to participate in its Program on Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research. This National Science Foundation supported program is designed to assist campuses in making institution-level changes to strengthen and expand undergraduate research opportunities.

One of only 64 schools selected nationally, City College is the only community college participating from the West Region. Other West Region schools include Point Loma Nazarene University,
CSU San Marcos, Vanguard University, Whittier College, California Lutheran University, CSU Chico and the
University of San Francisco

Participation in the CUR program enables City College to build on existing research activities as it broadens the institutional culture of research. For example, City’s Student Project and Research Symposium provides an annual forum for showcasing student research works. This signature event demonstrating student learning involves more than 60 academic majors. Participation has increased from 70 students in the first year to more than 240 students in 2007. More students and exhibits are anticipated at the next “Celebration of Student Excellence” on May 7, 2008.

Additionally, City also is home to the award-winning Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Program that supports economically disadvantaged students to excel in math based majors and successfully transfer to four-year institutions. In 2007, City College was part of the San Diego MESA Alliance that was awarded a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program.

Another model, the City Honors Program focuses on interactive classrooms, critical thinking, and extensive research projects. The Honors Program offers transfer agreements to California State Universities and Universities of California. City also partners with San Diego State University in the Bridges to the Future Program to increase the number of underrepresented students majoring in the biological sciences.

City is now poised to increase opportunities for engagement in regional and national discussions of trends in higher education and new research directions, including partnering with other institutions and pursuing external funding.

The first opportunity was a CUR West Region workshop in February attended by a 4-member City College team.

The next step is the development a campus-based Undergraduate Research Collaborative that reaches across all disciplines, interacts with all faculty and inspires students to conduct quality research in their field of interest.

The ultimate goal is to have City College become a community college model for undergraduate research.