Ulrc Engagement Program

Description: To advance our mission to “create and sustain an intellectually challenging and diverse academic environment through excellent teaching, scholarship, and service in the humanities and social sciences,” the College of Liberal Arts offers the Undergraduate Research, Learning, and Community Engagement Program (URLC). This program supports faculty-led projects focusing on undergraduate students' research and learning through engaging communities of various natures. This program provides funds to help faculty members from the college integrate undergraduate student mentoring into their research and community engagement scholarship.

The College now accepts funding applications to develop undergraduate research, learning, and community engagement programs. We will fund up to four projects, each up to $5,000. The funded projects should be executable in one to two semesters between the summer of 2025 and the summer of 2026. Each PI will be required to submit a report within one month of the completion of the program. The Deadline for application is 5 pm (CT) on May 31, 2025.

A complete application must include:

1) A 2-3-page description (including a title of the program, PI’s name, email, and department affiliation).

This narrative should explain the proposed URLC project. Please make sure to discuss

a) the problem being addressed through your project and the significance of this problem,

b) the impact of the project on our students and the contribution to the College’s mission, highlighting the number of undergraduate students (through which course, if applicable) who will be engaged in conducting research,

c) the community engagement plan, including which community group will be engaged and the major activities, and

d) how the project will be evaluated in terms of student outcome and community impacts;

2) An itemized budget request (up to $5,000);

3) A statement that the PI has discussed the feasibility of their plan with their Chair and has their Chair’s support. Please include information about departmental matching funds if applicable (note that department-matching funds are not required), and

4) If applicable, a plan for future grant applications based on the outcome of this award,

Eligibility:

This competition is open to all full-time faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts. Faculty members with a delinquent report from a past College award cannot apply.

The COLA URLC grant cannot be used to pay for faculty salary.

Please submit the complete application as ONE document to COLA_Research@txstate.edu. Questions about this competition can be sent to YL10@txstate.edu.