The Undergraduate Research Support Fund has been established within Office for University Outreach and Regional Campuses to support the participation of undergraduate students in the scholarly work of faculty members. Eligible students must be enrolled at a regional campus of Ohio University during the time of participation and must be working with a regional campus faculty member on a project that has significant potential to lead to publication or to presentation at a professional conference within the faculty member's discipline. Money from this fund cannot be used to support student projects, service activities, course development, grading of exams, or other activities that are not intended to produce some publication or conference presentation. Any work performed by the student must be directly related to the scholarly project.

Money from this fund requires a match from the regional campus. It is strongly preferred that the campus support is in the form of a small research grant, awarded from a campus fund set aside to support scholarship. Ideally, this award will be the result of an essentially competitive process, with recommendations coming from a committee of faculty members to the regional campus Dean. In any case, requests for support from the Undergraduate Research Support Fund should be made through the campus Dean to the Associate Vice President for Office for University Outreach and Regional Campuses. A copy of the proposal, as funded by the regional campus, should be included in the request for support. This proposal, at a minimum, should include a description of the project, including the work to be completed by the student and some information about the student.

Up to $500 can be awarded from this fund for any one project. A minimum of $2500 per year will be available to support various projects for at least the next five academic years, beginning with the 2000-2001 year. The award will be in the form of a scholarship to the student. If a student is receiving this award, he or she should not also receive wages for work on the same project. (Wages could be paid to a student once he or she has worked at least 100 hours on the project. It is assumed that students awarded a scholarship will work approximately 10 hours per week for a quarter, although variations are certainly acceptable.)

In addition, if a student is to receive academic credit for participation in the project at the same time he or she is receiving the scholarship, a clear rationale for giving both academic credit and the scholarship must be provided and approved by the Associate Vice President. It will be expected that additional work is involved if the student is to receive academic credit for involvement in the project.

A copy of any final report of the project also should be sent to the Office of the Vice President for Office for University Outreach and Regional Campuses. Requests may be submitted to the Associate Vice President at any time.