Who mentors undergraduate student researchers? An analysis of faculty involvement at a four-year university

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigated a profile of faculty who mentor undergraduate researchers at a four-year Hispanic-serving, public research university. Six variables were investigated: ethnicity, gender, age, tenure status, teaching evaluations, and research productivity. Data were compiled from institutional databases. Findings showed a greater percentage of tenured faculty mentoring undergraduate researchers while the percent of minority UR faculty mentors was consistent with institutional percentages. Additionally, findings included a higher percentage of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Undergraduate Research (UR) underrepresented minority faculty mentors compared to STEM Institution (INST) underrepresented minority faculty. For research productivity, UR faculty mentor funding comprised 28.0% of all external grant awards and 36.0% of all external funding during the sampling period. The majority funding for INST and UR faculty were found to be in the STEM disciplines. These findings provide evidence of potential predictors to describe UR faculty mentor profiles and can be considered important information for determining future educational policies and practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Undergraduate research
• mentoring
• faculty mentor profile

Acknowledgments

All authors contributed equally to this publication. The authors thank the faculty mentors presented in this study, the UR office staff for providing data necessary to conduct this study, as well as the IEA and DOR staff for providing data necessary for the faculty group comparisons.

Disclosure Statement

There is no conflict of interest for any authors within this study.

Additional information

Funding

No special funding or research grants were required to conduct this study.

Notes on contributors

Donna Chamely-Wiik

Dr. Donna Chamely-Wiik is an Associate Scientist in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Research at Florida Atlantic University. Her research interests include faculty and student involvement in undergraduate research, including an assessment of the impact of pedagogical interventions on student learning, development and perception.

Brian T. Cooney

Brian T. Cooney recently graduated with a Professional Science Master’s Degree in Business Biotechnology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University. His research and scholarly interests include immunology, parasitology, and pharmaceutical regulatory affairs.  Prior to graduate studies, he was heavily involved in undergraduate research. In 2016, he received the Undergraduate Researcher of the Year and Peer Mentor of the Year.

Michael A. DeDonno

Dr. Michael A. DeDonno received his MA and Ph.D. in psychology from Case Western Reserve University.  He also has an MBA from Baldwin Wallace University.  Dr. DeDonno is an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University where he teaches research methodology and statistics. He has a primary appointment in the College of Education and a secondary appointment in the College of Medicine.  He is also an Affiliate Faculty in the College of Nursing.