Empowering Creativity, Celebrating Achievement

UNM offers numerous opportunities for undergraduate students to contribute to scholarship through research, arts and design. These include courses, co-curricular engagements, mentoring, student employment and internships, among many others. UNM faculty, staff and community partners are dedicated to developing and guiding these opportunities.

UNM’s Undergraduate Research, Arts & Design Network (URAD) builds on this impressive work conducted across UNM to provide undergraduates with direct early involvement in research, art and design projects, programs, and internships. It is designed to facilitate equitable access to opportunities, coordinate communication, and amplify existing efforts while respecting their integrity. URAD coordinates with the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and consults with the Division for Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

URAD Goals

Through URAD, UNM faculty, staff, students and community stakeholders work together to meet the following goals:

• Expand the number of UNM students engaged in research, arts & design activity at all UNM campuses
• Expand the diversity and number of students engaged in research, arts & design early in their undergraduate careers
• Foster greater collaboration among UNM campuses, divisions, schools, colleges, and departments
• Leverage research, arts & design engagement to improve university retention, degree persistence and graduation rates

URAD Focus Areas

While all areas of undergraduate scholarship at UNM are important to our mission, the following types of student engagements best benefit from a network approach:

• Interdisciplinary research, arts and design
• Participation on cross-campus research, arts and design projects
• Early and/or scaffolded entry into research, arts and design
• Experiential learning in research, arts and design
• Experimentation in arts and design
• Research, arts and design applied to solving societal challenges

URAD Projects

• Communications. Expand our capacity to publicize UNM’s many research, arts & design courses and programs, including the publication of new feature articles and social media posts.
• Student Pathways. Create more strategic and interconnected student pathways to engagement in research, arts & design opportunities (especially during students’ first four semesters), and help faculty and staff recruit students to participate in their research, arts & design classes and programs.
• Online URAD Student Showcase and Recognition Framework. Create a website for displaying undergraduate research, arts & design products, possibly using Adobe and/or Canvas tools. The site will include a section for juried and/or peer reviewed work, a section for faculty/staff-nominated work, and a section for student submissions. Develop protocols for juried and/or peer reviewed competitions, and recruit UNM campuses and departments to sponsor more URAD awards.
• UROC. Continue implementing the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Conference, which was founded by Sarita Cargas and Kiyoko Simmons in Honors College. Leverage this successful event to develop similar opportunities in arts and design.
• Grant Collaborations. Implement strategies to share and expand resources, with an emphasis on seeking new grant funding to expand the number of research, arts & design engagements.
• Student Resources. Create new resources to help students leverage their research, arts and design activities to meet their personal and professional goals. Once these resources have been created, we will share them on a new Student version of the URAD website.
• Data Collection and Reporting. Develop mechanisms to collect, analyze and report student participation data, helping the UNM to identify strengths and gaps in programming.

How to get involved in URAD

If you would like to be involved in planning or programming, please consider the following options:

• If you would like to be informed about upcoming URAD events, projects or meetings, please join the URAD Faculty & Staff Listserv by subscribing using the box to the right. Once URAD has created content for UNM students, an additional URAD Listserv will be created.
• If you would like us to highlight your class, program or other student opportunity on UNM websites and social media sites, please tell us more about your exciting work.
• If you have questions about URAD or would like to collaborate on any of the URAD projects, please feel free to contact Dr. Schroeder, URAD Director, at timschroeder@unm.edu.
• If you would like to schedule a URAD discussion with your campus, college, school or department, please contact Dr. Schroeder at timschroeder@unm.edu.

Thank you for your continued creativity and dedication in providing UNM students with such outstanding opportunities to learn, grow and contribute to their communities around the world.