Student Academic Conference
How it Came to Be

The following is an article written by Ryan Sylvester in July 2001 for submission to CUR Quarterly about the Student Academic Conference.  It provides some history about how the conference originated and what the conference is all about.

The two initiated meetings with the President, Vice Presidents, and Academic Deans to request support. The conference was well supported financially and in spirit. With the endorsement of administration the conference planners developed a list of faculty and staff from across campus representing every discipline and division and invited them to be part of the Student Academic Conference steering committee.

The conference format includes a luncheon for presenters featuring an MSUM alumnus keynote speaker on the topic of undergraduate research.  The keynote is followed by a panel response by four undergraduate students who are selected by each academic Dean to represent their respective division (Arts & Humanities, Education & Human Services, Business & Industry, and Social & Natural Sciences). Following the luncheon are two or three presentation sessions of about an hour and half each in length. Most presentations in a session are about 17 minutes in length (12 minutes to present and 5 minutes for questions) but accommodations are made for specific time requests such as 30, 45, or even 60 minute workshops or panel discussions. About 15 break out rooms are used for simultaneous presentations so attendees have to determine which presentations they wish to attend. Throughout the conference, poster presentations are on display in the main lobby area where the conference is held.

Dr. Andrew Conteh and Ryan Sylvester remain the primary conference organizers with the assistance of various campus personnel and the advise of the steering committee. Applications to present are made available during fall semester and due in mid February. The conference strives to feature presentations from all academic majors across campus and to allow any student to participate. Applications are screened by the Program sub-group of the steering committee. Presentations are grouped loosely by common themes, but careful attention is paid to ensure sessions are not homogenous. This is done to promote the conference theme of sharing ideas across disciplines. The way presentations are scheduled presents attendees with the opportunity to hear multiple presentations from different disciplines within a session. Every attempt is made to accommodate audio visual requests of presenters.

There is no fee for the presenters. Presenters have the opportunity to attend the conference luncheon (at no cost) featuring the keynote speaker and student panelists. Funding for the conference has come from across campus in the past (Alumni Foundation, Academic Departments, Academic Deans, Vice Presidents, President) but recently the conference applied for a Strategic Initiative Grant and will operate off of the grant for another year and then the conference will be added to the regular budget of the university. The major costs to the conference are the conference luncheon for presenters, printing of the conference program with presentation abstracts, and funding for travel and hosting of the keynote speaker. Additional costs include: certificates, conference posters, conference information postcards, name tags, and other printing costs. The total per year has been less than $4,000.  But with increased participation costs have increased each year.

Conference planners are now preparing for the next Student Academic Conference to be held April. Each year has seen progressive positive involvement from presenters, faculty, staff, and attendance at the conference. The first conference featured 170 student presenters with 107 presentations. In its third year the conference featured 245 student presenters with 143 presentations.