The 15th Annual Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference
March 28, 2008 at Tusculum College
Students of colleges and universities in the Southern Appalachian Region attended and participated in the Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference (BRURC).
BRURC is designed to encourage undergraduate students to conduct research projects by providing a high quality low pressure forum for presentation.
Tusculum College students participate in Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference
Tusculum College featured both student participation and faculty/staff planning and leadership involvement in hosting the Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference for the second year in a row.
Tusculum was the host site for the Friday, March 28 event, which spotlighted research work done by undergraduates at colleges and universities in the Southern Appalachian region. A variety of academic disciplines were included in this yearıs conference.
Tusculum College hosted the same conference last year. Host schools generally perform that role only two years running, so the conference in 2009 will be hosted by Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Ky.
"This year the conference has a new source of support," Dr. Melinda Dukes, associate vice president for academic affairs and professor of psychology, said in introducing the event. "The Appalachian College Association (ACA) is hosting a Steering Committee for the Blue Ridge. The Steering Committee is comprised of eight volunteer faculty members and academic administrators from six different ACA member schools. The goal of the Committee is to assure the conferenceıs health as it moves from one host institution to another.²
Dr. Dukes also thanked the Tusculum College personnel who helped organize the 2008 event, noting in particular the work of Betty Dowd,
Dr. Russell Nichols, interim president of Tusculum College, gave the welcome to begin the conference. He praised the ACA as ³a real good partner for us,² and described his own observations of undergraduate research development over the years.
"In my career I have watched colleges go from no undergraduate research to a strong emphasis on undergraduate research,² Dr. Nichols said. He noted that undergraduates who master the skills of research ³have a leg up² when they enter graduate school.
He encouraged the undergraduates present to continue their work and also to maintain contact with their research professors and mentors after they have moved ahead academically and professionally.
John Cage, an English major at Tusculum College, was among the undergraduate researchers who presented at the conference. Cage, who is from Smyrna, presented the results of his comparative study of the type of language used in speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.