COPLAC Undergraduate Research Conference - Oct. 1-2, 2010

MCLA was pleased to welcome to campus the 2010 Northeastern Undergraduate Research Conference of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.   The  conference featured seventy-two presentations of research in the humanities, the arts, the social sciences and the natural sciences where students discussed their work with students and faculty in their discipline from all six COPLAC colleges.  There also was an arts show at the college's art gallery in North Adams.

The presentations and papers from the conference were published in the fall issue of COPLAC's online publication, Metamorphosis.

Undergraduate research flourishes at public liberal arts colleges because these schools promote close connections between students and faculty through which students become apprentice scholars.  While deepening a student'  disciplinary education, research can also integrate disciplines from across the spectrum by bringing together methods and materials from  diverse fields like poetry and physics or psychology and the arts. Research allows students to expand their personal knowledge of a specific topic, and presenting their results fosters respect for mastery of a subject,  concern for clear and logical organization and the satisfaction of sharing one's work.

Undergraduate research also opens doors to graduate study and future careers and cultivates a commitment to excellence.

• Eastern Connecticut State College
• Keene State College
• MCLA
• Ramapo College of New Jersey
• SUNY Geneseo
• University of Maine, Farmington