An oft-heard adage is that research is repeated methodical searching.

Re-search, get it?

Anyone who has seriously pursued any sort of research will agree, at least some of the time. The results of research are often made into books or other media, and truly groundbreaking and widely relevant research can become common knowledge through widespread teaching.

Who today would deny the existence of gravity? For this, we can thank Sir Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei.

Anyone will tell you kids imitate the adults they see, particularly in modeling aggressive behavior. Social scientist Albert Bandura was the first person to demonstrate this scientifically.

These are just two of the most widely-understood and recognized concepts to have come from research.

Any novel discovery or breakthrough can only come from a series of patient experiments or tests and often years of diligent work. No researcher, no matter how brilliant, can undertake such a demanding and protracted course of work without thorough practical training and solid theoretical knowledge.

Every brilliant researcher started out as an inexperienced gatherer of facts or a first-time experimenter – and luckily for us undergraduates, OU has a great undergraduate research program.

Graduate school was, and is, the primary setting in which most researchers refine their knowledge and hone their skills. The importance of graduate programs is great; in fact, the mere existence of graduate programs is what separates universities from undergraduate-only colleges.

Even among universities, research activity is a major factor in quantitative rankings and qualitative assessments. For example, our own university is classified as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation.

Among public institutions, that’s not too bad, although there is definitely room for improvement – the University of Texas, University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska are all area schools with “very high research activity.”

Though it can improve, OU still boasts very vigorous research programs in many different areas, from engineering to life sciences to social sciences. It has numerous nationally and globally-renowned researchers on its faculty. One of the main benefits of attending such an institution for undergraduates is the availability of quality research programs.

The mere availability of undergraduate research opportunities is not enough if they are not made particularly accessible for undergraduate students already dealing with a full load of classes, other activities and work. To this end, some departments on campus offer paid research positions. The monetary compensation helps offset the time spent doing research, which may otherwise have been spent working for a paycheck.

Of particular note in making research accessible to students is OU’s McClendon Honors College, which sponsors two great programs for undergraduate researchers.

First, the Honors Research Opportunities Program (HROP) allows Honors students to work for a semester on projects under the guidance of a faculty researcher and receive pay for hours worked – up to 60 hours total over one semester. For students who work, or who would like some compensation for their research work, this is a great program.

For students already involved in research, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) offers competitive grants for continuing projects across all disciplines. All research requires money for travel, supplies and other needs. These grants help defray those costs, and also give undergraduates valuable experience in writing grants. The third program is the most visible of the two aforementioned programs – Student Research and Performance Day, which incidentally was Saturday. This day-long event showcases the true diversity and quality of undergraduate research at OU, and shows the great strides that most undergraduate researches make with the opportunities presented to them by OU and in particular by the McClendon Honors College.

Overall, OU could certainly improve its rankings in the research arena, and is taking steps to do so. The completion and expansion of the Stephenson Center for life science research is an example of one such step.

OU provides its students with wonderful opportunities for research, and students should in turn take full advantage of them and further the research done here.

This relationship should be continued and expanded, for a future Newton or Bandura might very well be a Sooner.

-Munim Deen, microbiology senior.