OUR VIEW: The arrival of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges should not end the university’s encouragement of undergraduate research.

Midwestern is hoping to stay an accredited university.

Members of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges visited campus this week to finalize the evaluation of the university including the Quality Enhancement Plan, which has been underdevelopment since 2006.

Over the last three weeks, administrators have been hard at work preparing students, faculty and staff of their arrival. From giving out free T-shirts promoting the EURECA program, the university’s answer to the QEP, to giving away money as part of a student raffle, it is obvious university officials wanted the members of SACS to know that they were taking this seriously.

Yet, even with all of the advertising, students really do not care about this program.

Simply put – the university will lose federal funding if they do not meet accreditation standards, which has caused other colleges to close their doors.

In the eyes of SACS members, it might look like students know all about the QEP and EURECA, but they won’t a few months from now.

Students on this campus have a short-term memory when ideas aren’t constantly repeated to them.

In a few weeks, the only signs students will have left of the EURECA will be a bunch of worn out T-shirts.

The problem is that instead of forcing students to memorize what certain acronyms stand for, administrators should be preaching the importance of undergraduate research.

To continue this effort, the officials should not give up on the importance of undergraduate research. With the enrollment on a decline, this could become a major selling point for Midwestern.

It could also increase retention and graduation rates because doing research projects forces students to have a faculty mentor.

One of the major aspects missing from a lot of departments on campus is that there is no faculty-student interaction outside of the classroom.

EURECA can change that.

“Employers know that students involved in research have better critical thinking skills than students who have not had the same experience,” said Magaly Rincon-Zachary, professor of biology.

Rincon-Zachary has the right viewpoint and other university leaders should follow her lead.

Unfortunately, Midwestern still has a stigma of a being a Plan B (or sometimes C or D) college, compared to the University of Texas or Oklahoma University.

Adding a successful and effective undergraduate research division is a major benefit.

Scholarly activity should be encouraged.

Now the question remains if students will actually participate in the research projects.

Let’s hope university leaders really want students to “inquire, discover and create” not just because they want to pass accreditation students.

Here’s to hoping campus officials understand how the success of this program could get the university out of major financial trouble and allow students to have a more we