SGA to fund student research

The Georgia College & State University Student Government Association is prepared to give away $12,500 to scholar students.

SGA has set aside money from its annual budget to fund student research. The fund is called the Academic Travel Fund and its purpose is to help fund student travel to present papers at professional conferences.

“It is basically a fund set aside to provide limited means for students wishing to do research,” SGA Treasurer Will Hatcher said.

Students must be currently enrolled at GC&SU at the time in which the semester funds are requested and the semester the student’s trip is planned. Students eligible to receive funds must be presenting either a scholarly research paper or some other discipline appropriate project at an academic conference or workshop.

In order to apply, a student must have already received notification of the paper’s acceptance for a specific conference and must have a faculty sponsor to endorse funding of the application request.

“Once they get confirmation the paper has been accepted for presentation, then they fill out the form,” Robin Harris, director of the Office of Experimental Learning and assistant professor of government and sociology, said. “This year, we are trying to encourage everybody, as soon as their paper is accepted, to go ahead and apply for the money.”

At this time, funding is distributed to students for reimbursements only. Paid receipts must be submitted to the Office of Experimental Learning within 14 days of the end of the student’s trip. Funding cannot exceed $500 per student annually and may not be used for food.

“We have $12,500, which is not a lot, but it can help students that need support,” Hatcher said.

“Last year was the first year that we gave away all of the money. This time we know that there will be a little more push for money, so we have done a lot of lying down ground work,” Harris said. “My office just got into it to help administer the money. All the decisions are made by the student government committee.”

Applicants are required to meet with SGA for an interview during the funding process. The funding committee is made up of members of SGA.

“It is four senators, plus the president of SGA is vice chair, and I am the chairman. We thought we would get more student involvement with the senators in there,” Hatcher said.

This year, any student receiving funding from the SGA Travel Fund is required to submit their paper proposal to the Interdisciplinary Research Conference, a one-day conference held on the GC&SU campus that allows students to gain valuable experience in preparing and presenting papers at professional conferences. Students are also required to submit a completed copy of their paper for publication in “The Corinthian,” the journal of student research at GC&SU.

Approximately 60 students from 13 disciplines attended regional or national conferences through SGA funding in 2001.

“We sent about 60 students all across the country. We sent some to New York City and some to Las Vegas. It’s really neat and we did it in about a dozen different disciplines, from art to creative writing to math and chemistry,” Harris said.

Applications may be picked up in MSU 129, Lanier 130, or accessed online at www.gcsu.edu/oel. For more information, please contact Dr. Robin O. Harris at rharris@gcsu.edu or Sandy Ladson at sladson@gcsu.edu.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 20 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry