This page provides general information about what is involved in hosting SCCUR.

Members of the SCCUR Board of Directors are available and willing to meet with the administrators and faculty/staff of prospective host institutions to discuss further details of hosting the SCCUR conference.

The Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the practices and ideals of undergraduate research in the Southern California region.

SCCUR

• Features the annual conference, which has been hosted since 1993 on the Saturday before Thanksgiving by a Southern California college or university

• Showcases the region's best undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative work.

• Is the largest regional multidisciplinary event of its kind in the United States, in recent years averaging well over 500 registrants, including student and faculty participants from more than 60 academic institutions (universities, colleges, community colleges, and occasionally high schools).

• Replicates the experience of scholarly "professional meetings" for its participants, but with an important difference: it is deliberately multidisciplinary, encouraging presentation of work in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts. Thus, while most work is presented in oral or poster form, SCCUR also provides a venue for poetry readings, musical and dance performances, and art exhibits.

Hosting the SCCUR conference involves a partnership between the host institution and the SCCUR Board of Directors, who provide not only the SCCUR name but also planning guidelines and expertise developed over fifteen years of successful programs. The conference is a large, complicated event, and it requires a broad institutional commitment of time and resources. Benefits to the host institution are substantial.

For further information about hosting a SCCUR conference, contact the President of the SCCUR Board of Directors.

Benefits of Hosting Sccur

• SCCUR brings many hundreds of visitors active in higher education onto the host institution's campus, putting on public display in a unique way the institution’s own programs and commitment to undergraduate education.

• Hosting SCCUR identifies the host institution as a leader in regional and national undergraduate research and inquiry-based learning, which is increasingly recognized as an exceptionally effective kind of pedagogy, rewarding for students and their faculty mentors alike.

• Because the SCCUR conference involves large numbers of an institution's own faculty and students, it unifies and energizes undergraduate research efforts and programs in place at the institution, whatever their degree of development. Past hosts have used the conference to jump-start nascent programs and to showcase and expand existing ones.

• SCCUR brings its host's students and faculty into direct collegial relationships with other scholars in the Southern California region.

What's Required from the Hosting Institution

Although considerable flexibility is possible, in order to host a successful SCCUR Conference, an institution should be able to provide the following:

• Physical space for 700-1000 participants, including

  • a central location for a plenary address

  • 25-35 smaller rooms for oral presentation sessions

  • space adequate for 100-200 poster presentations

  • locations (indoors or outdoors) for registration, lunch service, art exhibits, etc.

• A Conference Director or Directors who will oversee the entire project while working closely with the SCCUR Board of Directors.

• A conference website, fully supported and maintained by the host institution, able to receive and process abstracts and manage conference registration. SCCUR does not provide administrative or technical support, but it has made available to past hosts a conference software package developed by UC Irvine specifically for the SCCUR conference.

• A boxed lunch and appropriate refreshments for participants throughout the day of the conference.

• Publications, including a distinctive, high-quality conference poster and an abstract book/program made available to participants.

• Miscellaneous conference support materials: student volunteers (registration, guides, etc.), poster easels, security, parking, etc.

Many of the costs associated with items above are covered by conference registrations, but hosting the conference nonetheless demands a considerable investment of institutional time and energy.

A successful conference requires full institutional support at all levels.

Applying to Host SCCUR

SCCUR encourages institutions to think several years ahead about hosting the conference. Interested institutions are encouraged to send administrative/faculty teams to SCCUR conferences as observers. Such teams will be given access to all planning materials, and members of the Board of Directors are available to answer any questions concerning hosting. The basic application process is as follows:

Submitting an Initial Proposal: Potential host institutions should contact any member of SCCUR's Board of Directors to begin a process of developing a formal proposal, which should minimally include:

• a letter of commitment from the institution's president or chief academic officer, indicating full institutional support for the conference

• the name(s) of a conference coordinator or coordinators, usually a faculty member at the institution

• a draft balanced budget

The SCCUR Board will assist institutional representatives in preparing the proposal.

Memorandum of Understanding: Final approval shall be contingent on the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between SCCUR and the host institution. Although the exact form of this MOU may vary from institution to institution, it will affirm the institution's agreement to adhere to SCCUR's general host guidelines for the conference; it will also set registration fees and establish principles for surplus revenue-sharing. .

Conference Planning: SCCUR has prepared a detailed set of host guidelines covering matters from session scheduling to food to the process of abstract submission and review. Hosts should establish a conference steering committee at the latest during the winter preceding the conference.