Call for Proposals

We invite proposals that engage topics discussed in UERU-sponsored Boyer 2030 Commission Report, The Equity/Excellence Imperative: A 2030 Blueprint for Undergraduate Education at U.S. Research Universities (available gratis at https://ueru.org/boyer2030). UERU convened the 2030 Boyer Commission to revisit the 1998 Boyer manifesto, Reinventing Undergraduate Education. This year’s conference theme challenges us to envision comprehensive systems that align with and support student learning and growth. It invites us to consider quantitative and qualitative measures of student success, and to address the entire spectrum of undergraduate education, spanning from recruitment and bridge programs to proactive advising, curriculum innovations, and world readiness. Prospective presenters might consider these questions:

• How can we (re)envision existing and new structures, processes, practices, and identities to enable our institutions to achieve holistic student success?
• How can we dismantle institutional barriers that inequitably impact our students? What are our success stories and what lessons have we learned from failed efforts?
• How do we re-engage and re-imagine the possibilities for equitable teaching and learning in our research universities? For career development and world readiness?
• How can we center student perspectives and voices in our programmatic and institutional work? Whose voices are not yet represented or foregrounded in our work? 
• How do we effectively support faculty by providing the necessary tools and resources to ensure both their success and the success of their students?

Please note that UERU and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) will again co-locate national conferences to build multi-year collaborations across institutions as well as leverage the shared expertise and commitments of both membership organizations. 

UERU Session Formats:

We seek a diverse slate of presenters representing a variety of institutions, positions, perspectives, and voices. We will prioritize proposals that include opportunity for engaged conversation with session participants, a hallmark of UERU meetings. Please limit titles to 20 words and abstracts to 150 words and consider the following formats:  

• Provocation Panels: A panel of 3-5 presenters who will offer brief (5-8 minutes) prepared statements. Following these statements, session attendees will engage in dialogue.
• Roundtable Talks: Up to three individual presentations of 10-15 minutes on a common theme or topic raised in the Boyer 2030 Report followed by attendee discussion. Proposers can submit an entire roundtable or an individual talk to be combined with others. 
• Posters: Individual or collaborative presenters. Posters allow presenters to visually present ideas and facilitate dialogue among colleagues. Posters might showcase successful programs or initiatives related to the Boyer 2030 provocations, share research or evaluation related to institutional efforts, present case studies, or other forms of inquiry. Posters will be displayed over UERU’s two-day conference and highlighted at UERU’s Wednesday, January 22 luncheon. 
• Vignettes/Case Studies: Brief narrative descriptions/stories designed to stimulate discussion around issues or situations that undergraduates or leaders/practitioners at research universities commonly face in relation to one or several of Boyer 2030’s 11 provocations. The main aim is to promote thought and discussion on various aspects of undergraduate education in light of the equity/excellence imperative. Vignettes should be flexible enough that individuals from different roles can bring their perspectives forward in discussions of solutions and actions.  
• Hot Topics: A group of presenters identify a broadly relevant theme. The presenters facilitate conversation via discussion tables on the "hot topic" and provide time for a debriefing across tables to collect summary responses and solutions.
• Student-Centered Panels: Designed to center our work from the perspectives of the undergraduates we seek to serve, these panels highlight our undergraduates' experiences as they describe institutional barriers they have faced and curricular and co-co-curricular experiences that have been most valuable to their educational journeys at our institutions. 

Submit proposals (and queries) to homeoffice@ueru.org by July 22 for full consideration.

Proposals will be reviewed by the 2025 UERU National Conference Planning Committee: Nikos Varelas, Chair (University of Illinois, Chicago); Melanie Carter (Howard); Bill Cohen (UMD-College Park); Rachel Holloway (Virginia Tech); Bob McMaster (UMN-Twin Cities); Ashley Purgason (UT-Arlington); Louie Rodriquez (UC-Riverside); Janet Schreck (Johns Hopkins); Bridget Trogden (American); Patrick Turner (New Mexico State); and UERU Home Office Staff.

All presenters must register to participate in the conference. Presenters will be notified of registration deadlines along with acceptance notifications. Presenters not registered by the communicated deadline will be removed from the final program.

UERU National Conference Program

In conjunction with the AAC&U Annual Meeting

(schedule subject to revision)

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Thursday, January 23, 2025