What is ORCA?
Dramatic changes are occurring in higher education. Instead of simply memorizing copious
pages of lecture notes, today's undergraduates are being challenged to become active
contributors to the development of new knowledge. Murray State University is working
to become one of Kentucky's institutions of choice for students who want to perform
significant research and do real scholarly or creative work.
At Murray State, we also understand that student retention is an important University
concern. We know that students leave college for a wide variety of reasons, not the
least of which is that they have not “connected” with the university community. Providing
students with an opportunity to build close working relationships with faculty members
and peers is an important component of any university’s retention strategy. At Murray
State, we have embarked on a program that engages students in faculty-guided research
and scholarly work that begins when the students arrive at Murray State as freshman
and continues until they receive their degrees.
To encourage and facilitate this important new teaching and learning paradigm, Murray
State University has created The Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA).
(Formerly known as Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity, or URSA.) The office
has developed a number of initiatives to support faculty-mentored scholarly, creative,
and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in all disciplines
across the university.
The kinds of undergraduate projects we envision often require some financial support.
The ORCA Grants program has been created to address this need. These awards will provide
up to $1,000 to support faculty-student collaborations for supplies, literature searches,
equipment, travel to field sites, and other costs associated with approved projects.
We have also organized an annual campus-wide celebration of undergraduate and graduate
student scholarship to be held in the months of April and November. Called Scholars
Week, this event enables students to present the results of their work to the campus
and local community in a variety of formats, including oral presentations, poster
displays, performances, and exhibits.
Another important initiative developed by the office is Posters-at-the-Capitol. Since
its inaugural year in 2001,
Posters
regularly hosts over 200 students from Kentucky's eight public universities and the
Kentucky Community and Technical College System at the Capitol Building in Frankfort.
These students help carry the message to those who fund higher education in Kentucky
that involving undergraduates in the scholarly pursuits of the faculty is an extremely
important and effective in teaching and learning methodology.
Our recently-launched journal, Steeplechase, provides a forum for students to publish the results of their research, scholarly
and creative endeavors, as well as discuss their personal experience with the research
process. We encourage all students to submit their best work for publication in the
new journal.
The office works closely with Murray State faculty to ensure programs are developed
that meet the needs of the faculty, our students, and the University. The ORCA Faculty
Advisory Board, therefore, is key to the success of the office .
With representatives from each college and school, as well as the University Libraries,
the Advisory Board has played an important role in shaping and developing the programs
of the office.
We encourage both the students and faculty of Murray State University to take advantage
of the programs that have been created and work with the office in helping to create
an even more effective teaching and learning environment at Murray State.