UROP is designed as a foundational pathway to reshaping SJSU’s institutional culture around research by fostering faculty-student partnerships, research-intensive pedagogy, and interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue across campus. Faculty are an integral component of UROP, as they serve important roles as mentors, supervisors, teachers, and trainers to our student mentees. UROP centers relational care in its mentorship approach to ensure a collaborative, mutually beneficial research experience between student and faculty. UROP faculty mentor expectations include:

Develop project plan, timeline, and general expectations - Faculty mentors will work with their student mentees to co-create a general project timeline, scope of work, training and workshop protocols, and any other research-related expectations for the academic year. Mentors will be asked to review and sign faculty-student agreement form upon official student partnership, and asked to approve their mentee's monthly time card.

Attend faculty orientation and mentor training workshop - UROP administration offers two program orientations for the new incoming faculty cohort in the fall. The faculty orientation provides a general overview of the program (e.g., brief history, primary components, key stakeholders), and is an opportunity for the cohort to meet one another and ask UROP leadership any programmatic-specific questions. The faculty mentor training workshop is an opportunity for faculty to reflect on their role as a mentor and develop strategies for working with students with limited research experience (e.g., first generation). The workshop is hosted by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s leadership team.

Review/collaborate on poster(s) for culminating experiences - Each spring semester, faculty mentors will be asked to help their student mentees develop their poster and/or presentation for the Celebration of Research and Lurie College Showcase end-of-year events. The deliverables reflect the scope of work completed by the research team over the academic year.

What faculty receive

Participating faculty in UROP will receive the following:

• $250 in professional development funds
• Dedicated research support for academic year
• Opportunity to guide students early in their SJSU journey
• Multi-level support from peer mentor, program director, and ODEI

When to submit project(s)

Faculty are encouraged to submit a research project during the open submission period (mid-April through July). During the spring semester, UROP administrators will send out a campus-wide email to all faculty with general program information and details on how to submit your project proposal. Multiple submissions are welcome (please submit each project separately).

• How do I partner with a student mentee?

  • During the third week of the fall semester, students will gain access to the database of available faculty projects. Students will first explore the database of available projects, then contact faculty to set up a time to meet. UROP uses a two-way selection process where faculty and students engage in a bi-directional interview to gauge reciprocal interest of both parties. Once the student and faculty agree to work together, they will email the instructor to finalize the partnership. Students will most likely be required to reach out to more than one faculty due to volume of projects.

• Do I have to pay my student mentee out of my own funds?

  • No, students are eligible to work up to 10 hours per week with their faculty mentor. Funding is provided by Federal Work Study and ODEI.
    
    

• What if interested students are not in my field/discipline?

  • UROP accepts projects and applications from faculty and students campus-wide. While many students will seek out projects from faculty who are in a related major, we encourage students to step out of their comfort zone and explore interdisciplinary projects from faculty outside of their field of study. We hope to bridge disciplinary silos across the university and motivate students to think about the research process holistically. 

Submit your project 

Are you interested in participating in UROP as a faculty mentor for the 2024-25 academic year? Fill out a UROP Faculty Application to submit your project to our database. Students will gain access to the submitted projects during the third week of the fall 2024 semester; interested students in your research will reach out to you and set up a two-way interview.