Most students are merely thankful for cancelled classes and an extra day to do homework when the annual Whitman Undergraduate Conference comes around. However, the Undergraduate Conference offers the student body the unique opportunity to celebrate their peers’ academic accomplishments.  

The conference was originally organized in 1998 by the then-Dean of Faculty Patrick Keep and current Professor of French Language and Literature Mary O’Neil, who was Assistant Dean of Faculty at the time.

“Patrick Keep had been to a meeting on a campus with an undergraduate conference, and he felt it would be a great idea and a unique program for students,” said O’Neil.

O’Neil and Keith set up the original Undergraduate Conference board, which included student, faculty and staff members. The conference board structured the conference into four sessions of topic-based panels with each session including a series of 15-minute lectures. This remains the conference’s current structure.

Marking the 11th year of the Whitman Undergraduate Conference, this year’s seminars will feature 176 student and faculty participants, an increase from last year’s 165 participants. The Conference will also feature a wide variety of presentations from talk forums, poster presentations and artistic exhibitions.  

The Undergraduate Conference gives underclassmen a chance to observe and appreciate the work and effort of student research projects. These projects range from junior Theodore Barnhart’s research on wetland vegetation changes to senior Seren Pendleton-Knoll’s theatrical production on diversity issues at Whitman.  

After   completing their research, students often find conclusions not just applicable to their own field of study or even what their research entailed. Barnhart, aside from finding information to support his original thesis, discovered the difficulty in interpreting research data.

“What I discovered was data is inherently flawed,” said Barnhart. “Basically I’m showing an increase in the “wetness” of the wetland, but that is biased based on my perception. I learned about the subjectivity of research.”

Another aspect of the conference is its focus on including multidisciplinary appeal to presentations. Audience members can and are encouraged to attend presentations that focus on disciplines outside of their intended major study.  

“It’s exciting to see the different types of research students are doing,” said Pendleton-Knoll. “It’s fascinating, and a really great opportunity to see what other students on campus are working on [that] we don’t know about.”

Pendleton-Knoll enforces this idea of cross-disciplinary focus by presenting her thesis, which combines her psychology and theater majors. Her presentation focuses on the results of performing her ethnodrama, “When the Masks Come Off”.  

She hopes her presentation will appeal to a wide audience in part with its inclusion of theater as well as combining the prevalent issue of diversity at Whitman.

“I think it’s interesting because it combines psych and theater, and there aren’t typically undergraduate lectures [on theater]. Ethnodramas have never really been studied in detail, although they’re supposed to produce change. Also, I’ve noticed a lot of discontent regarding diversity on campus, so this was something I was concerned about and could integrate into my thesis.”

Students work on their presentations over the course of the entire year, carefully planning and constructing abstracts, data sheets and research methods in order to create a short presentation with scholarly professionalism in order to peak student interest and, in the words of Barnhart, to gather ideas of how to “take their education into a more independent field.”

While the conference’s original goal to celebrate student achievement is still an important factor to the conference, students have quickly grasped that the conference allows students to test how their research interests and impacts the public.

“[The conference] really gives students a sense of closure, [as well as] a chance to try out their ideas,” said O’Neil.

Parents and faculty members are also encouraged to attend the presentations.

The Whitman Undergraduate Conference is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7, 2009. Presentations and lectures will be in various academic buildings. Schedule information is available soon on the Whitman Web site and on posters around campus. Conference programs will be distributed a few days before the conference.