University of California - Berkeley, CA
posted 5 months ago
The Undergraduate Research and Curricular Program Analyst will take a data-driven approach to refining policies, administrative infrastructure, and strategic project development for a range of programs and initiatives across the Academic Engagement Unit of the College of Letters & Sciences' Undergraduate Division. Within the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarships, the position will support the enhancement of faculty engagement across multiple programs. The incumbent will serve as key personnel for two important programs: the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (SURF L&S). The Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP), UC Berkeley's most significant, campus-wide pipeline to research program, serves nearly 2,000 students and 375 faculty every semester. The College of Letters & Science's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (SURF L&S) provides summer funding to roughly 85 undergraduates, each of whom is undertaking research related to a proposed honors thesis. Key Responsibilities include: - Supports the implementation of the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) every semester, including faculty and student recruitment, program promotion, planning, administration, communication, evaluation, and assessment; works with program manager and unit director to set program goals and objectives for URAP and collaborates with database programmer and web designer about definition of database fields and functions, suggesting improvement for data collection and user experience; administers the nomination, selection, and review processes for the Summer URAP awards and related reporting. Identifies gaps in student preparedness to undertake research and impediments to completion of projects. - Supports the transition of SURF L&S from an application-based program to admissions based on departmental nomination; manages the implementation of SURF programming over the summer, hiring and supervising a team of four graduate student mentors who serve as program staff; oversees the administration of summer awards for SURF L&S, collecting profiles from fellows and reviewing their adherence to program commitments. Research technological platforms and technical solutions to support program complexities and scale. - Engages faculty mentors of SURF L&S and URAP recipients about their experiences with the intention to create tools and resources for faculty-oriented training and information sharing around research mentorship, perhaps in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning. - Assesses growth and innovation potential of the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP), and other research programs, drawing on both faculty and student evaluations. - Examines URAP evaluations and SURF L&S surveys with an eye toward improving student experience and faculty engagement in consultation with OURS director, program staff, and divisional leadership. - Draws qualitative and quantitative data from program participants and projects to support program goals, especially for enhancing teaching and learning outcomes, improving access, and advancing students' sense of belonging. As needed, revises data collection strategies and organizes participant metadata to improve trend searchability. - Identifies effective and innovative research mentorship that can be leveraged to support curricular initiatives, such as L&S Pathways, or co-curricular offerings, such as OURS workshops. - Develops multiple means of measuring program impacts across various criteria, including alignment with divisional strategic priorities. - Attains comprehensive knowledge of technical platforms and investigates alternative operational systems to sustain program growth and support administrative complexity. - Leverages partnerships across campus to conceptualize and implement strategies for scaling student demand to faculty mentorship and administrative capacity. - Cultivates ongoing cross-campus partnerships and supports building new partnerships, expanding mission-aligned collaborations around data analysis, tracking milestones and deliverables, and drafting reports and analysis. - Works with unit directors, program managers, and L&S Communications team to generate reports on OURS research programs and L&S curricular initiatives with features, profiles, trends, statistics, impact statements, and program metrics; undertakes occasional surveys of peer institutions to gather data about comparable programs, their technology infrastructure, administration, and student and faculty participation. - Engages in continuous learning in topics related to best practices in mentorship, high-impact educational experiences, and project management. - Identifies stress points experienced by faculty mentors that can be addressed to improve mentor retention and engagement, making policy recommendations to program leadership as needed.