SURE Program Information

We invite you to apply to participate in this important experience. All subject areas are encouraged to apply. Full-time faculty/student teams representing all disciplines are invited to submit proposals. We encourage applications from the humanities, social sciences, fine arts and business in addition to the sciences, and especially encourage full-time faculty members who have not previously participated in SURE.

The purpose of the SURE Program is to enhance learning opportunities for students while encouraging collaboration between students and faculty conducting scholarly research. The SURE Program enables selected students to participate in scholarly projects under the direct mentorship of faculty members. Faculty mentors receive valuable student assistance that will accelerate the progress of their own scholarly efforts. The work of the student research assistant, therefore, must be scholarly oriented and not clerical or bibliographic in its primary emphasis.

Research projects involving SURE Scholars should have the potential of scholarly publication or provide the student with an equivalent experience. Students are encouraged to pursue Independent Research projects with their faculty mentors as a result of their experiences as SURE Scholars. These projects may be extensions of the research experience or may involve techniques and knowledge the student has acquired as a research assistant.

*Applications will be accepted under the SURE Leaders category. SURE Leaders are previous SURE Scholars who can apply for another summer of funding in a leadership role OR a student who participated in an affiliated program during a previous summer and is now applying for SURE. Funding is available for one or more SURE Leader positions for the summer of 2023. SURE Leaders will be expected to conduct group programming in conjunction with the SURE Resident Assistant (RA) and to be liaisons between the SURE administrators and students. The selection process of eligible, interested candidates will include an interview.

Policies and Procedures:

• SURE research assistantships are available to full-time students in all disciplines.
• To be eligible to apply to be a SURE Scholar, students must:
• Be in the Classes of 2024, 2025, and 2026.
• Have an overall GPA of 2.00 or higher after the fall 2022 semester. Applications from students whose overall GPA drops below 2.00 after the fall 2022 semester will not have their applications reviewed.
• SURE research projects may take place over an 8- or 10-week period. Please consider the following prior to selecting a session:
• Both sessions begin Tuesday, May 30, 2023 and must follow consecutive weeks.
• Under special circumstances, students may begin the program after this date. However, the program must be started, on campus, no later than Monday, June 12, 2023. Students arriving later than Tuesday, May 30, may be limited to the 8-week stipend amount, depending upon arrival date.
• Students serving as Orientation Leaders are not eligible to enroll in the 8-week session. Instead, they must complete the 8-week program in the 10-week time period and will only receive the 8-week stipend amount to account for the two weeks spent in leadership training and First-Year Orientation sessions.
• An extra five-day week is factored into both sessions to accommodate the Memorial Day, Juneteenth, and Fourth of July holidays, plus two non-paid floating days; therefore, the 8-week session will end on Friday, July 28, 2023 and the 10-week session, on Friday, August 11, 2023. Two faculty members may, if they wish, share a SURE Scholar, either concurrently or consecutively. The logistics of the sharing arrangements must be described in detail in the proposal.
• All SURE Scholars receive a stipend, subject to the usual deductions for state and federal taxes. The 2023 stipend for the 8-week session will be $4,800; the total for the 10-week session will be $6,000. On-campus housing for SURE students will be available at a cost of approximately $40.00 per week.
• Each faculty member who serves as a SURE mentor will receive a stipend of $3,500 (if a faculty member mentors more than one SURE student, they will receive $500 per additional SURE student).
• An allowance of at least $500 is provided per student for supplies and expenses directly connected with the research project. Control of these funds is under the supervision of the faculty mentor with approval of the Office of the Provost.