It is important to insert into our ongoing deliberations about the future academic structure and profile of the College, a definitive role for undergraduate research. Indeed, many Colleges put such a profile at the center of their mission and distinctiveness. Curiously, Ramapo College is one of the 366 members of the Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR) based in Washington. But regrettably, little of this is evident at the College, with the exception of a handful of faculty who have committed themselves to exploring the benefits of involving students in their ongoing research. Its time to end the lip-service and take an account of where we stand in this important and growing area of contemporary College life. The problem is that we lack a fundamental grounding for any serious effort in this direction to be successful. An immediate question that comes to mind is: How can we provide undergraduate research opportunities at the College? We need to devise a successful model for establishing and institutionalizing undergraduate research. This can only be done if we improve the general research environment at the College for faculty. A serious and thoughtful undergraduate research initiative at Ramapo College will not occur until there is a structure for Ramapo faculty to ground their research interests. Only then, will the College see the remarkable ways in which undergraduate research can be relevant to community groups, state legislatures and Foundations. By considering this, we the College with a ‘global mission’, join what is really an international trend to involve undergraduates in serious faculty research programs. Might we finally give short shrift to the wrong-headed notion that only students at the graduate level are fit for working with faculty on research.

There are several opportunities which already exist within the College that can be explored, for example, associating our student’s Senior Projects with faculty interests. I am sure that we can think of many other curricular based opportunities which exist between faculty and students. But, we must go further. In fact, we need to be decidedly programmatic and ground an institutional structure, such as an Institute, that can generate Senior Projects in tandem with faculty research interests. It is in this spirit that I propose the following model for consideration to the Committee and the faculty. It tentatively takes the title: The Ramapo Institute for Social and Cultural Research

The strategic goal of this Institute is to construct long-term research/funding relationships with foundations, public and para-public institutions, NGOs, the community sector, research and academic institutions. The aim is to build a faculty research presence at the College with an emphasis upon undergraduate research. In the changing transnational environment of public and private colleges, the research capacity of an institution and its ability to compete for evermore scarce funding, as well as recognition of its overall excellence and "niche excellence", is becoming more critical then ever. Inevitably, the value of a Ramapo College degree will be judged against new competitive standards, as all institutions upgrade their pedagogical missions, undergraduate resource opportunities, strategies and course-related offerings.

• A Survey Research Unit: The Northern constituency of New Jersey is presently under-served in terms of access to cultural attitudinal survey data research. We propose an Institute at Ramapo College that will, function on the public interest model of the Eagleton Center at Rutgers University, Marist College, Quinnipiac University and most recently Pace University with The Pace Poll. In view of this competitive landscape, none of these Centers or Institutes focus purely on social and cultural components of society as captured in survey data. The Ramapo Institute for Social and Cultural Research

will be poised to assume this critical niche, developing a survey data bank on critical issues in New Jersey/New York (race, ethnic relations, youth, women, media, religion, difference, etc.), The Institute will also be positioned to have a first mover potential on topical issues as they naturally and spontaneously emerge in the public sphere. In a context of increasing social uncertainty and more complex issues of cultural diversity, access to information will become very valuable from a public opinion and public interest perspective. None of the current "institutional competitors" mentioned above are positioned in this important and growing niche. This component of the research Institute harbors the potential to involve students research in current affairs and public interest survey work.

• Social and Cultural Policy Group: The Institute will have a Social and Cultural Policy Group that will be composed of members of the Survey Research Unit, interested faculty members at large and students. The Social and Cultural Policy Group will be involved on an equal basis in the development of task priorities for the Survey Research Unit. The Social and Cultural Policy Group will be specifically responsible for creating symposia on select topics that have been researched and developed by the Survey Research Unit. One of the tasks of The Social and Cultural Policy Group is to generate public discussion and debate on key findings of the Survey Research Unit.