The Provost’s Office and the LSA Dean’s Cabinet recently announced a transformative institutional elevation, confirming the transition of the highly successful Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program into the newly established Center for Research, Scholarly, and Creative Inquiry.
This fundamental shift moves undergraduate discovery from a deeply impactful, college-based initiative to a university-wide strategic asset. The transition to UROP: A Center for Research, Scholarly and Creative Inquiry was effective July 1, 2025, and represents a major enhancement of U-M’s academic infrastructure.
The new center will operate under a joint strategic model, ensuring robust operational capacity and campus-wide reach. Operationally, the center will continue to be housed in LSA. However, new resources and support from the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education will allow UROP to expand its impact for both students and researchers across campus.
University leadership emphasized that this institutional change is not merely a rebranding but a commitment to enhancing scale and equitable access across U-M’s diverse student body of over 32,000 undergraduates.
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Angela Dillard, whose office is tasked with advancing continuous enhancements and implementing centralized resources and best practices for undergraduate education across the university, will champion the center’s integration.
This partnership with LSA ensures that the highly effective research model established by UROP can now be applied consistently across all schools and colleges, maximizing impact.
A foundation of excellence
Established in 1988-89, UROP built a foundation for undergraduate discovery at U-M. For over three decades, UROP has consistently demonstrated that student connection with U-M researchers is a powerful driving force of student success.
UROP is cited as ranking first among peer institutions in broadening student access to research and exposing students to all fields of inquiry. The Council of Undergraduate Research also lists U-M UROP as the top institution that encourages and facilitates research partnerships across all 19 of U-M’s schools and colleges.
UROP has been recognized for its ability to support students who can work with U-M faculty and researchers on projects that cross traditional academic boundaries. The elevation to a center was the necessary next step to maximize its potential.
Data-driven
The impetus for the institutional elevation originated from a rigorous, internal assessment.
The UROP director’s 2020-2022 exploratory study gathered information from 16 peer institutions, as well as U-M internal constituents (faculty, students, alumni, administrators), regarding the formulation of an Undergraduate Research Center at U-M.
A feasibility and needs assessment study was submitted to LSA leadership, which led directly to the activation of the next phase of institutional change: the formation of a UROP Campus-Wide Taskforce (January-July 2023).
The director of UROP chartered a temporary, multidisciplinary task force (e.g., the Taskforce on the Future of Undergraduate Discovery) composed of key faculty, researchers and administrative leaders from LSA, Michigan Medicine, the College of Engineering, School of Kinesiology, and the Office of the Vice President for Research.
The primary mission of this task force was to develop a scalable blueprint for moving the program into a center structure. This involved critical deliberations on governance, the necessary centralized infrastructure, resource coordination, and how to formally define and support “creative inquiry” across disciplines.
In its work, the task force utilized benchmarking against peer institutions with established undergraduate research centers and drew structural inspiration from UROP, which focused on defining guiding principles, infrastructure needs and strong coordination.
Guiding the transformation
The task force report was submitted in winter 2024 to U-M leadership, including the provost and the vice provost for undergraduate education, outlining the necessary structure for the future of the center. The core recommendations focused on three critical areas:
- Establishing a centralized infrastructure to provide key administrative and resource coordination across all schools, essential for supporting interdisciplinary activities.
- Implementing elevated governance by recommending joint leadership under VPUE (for campus-wide integration) and LSA (for foundational academic oversight).
- The expanded definition formalizing “Research, Scholarly, and Creative Inquiry” to guarantee support for the arts, humanities and community-engaged projects.
The submission of this report transformed the proposed change from an internal programmatic adjustment into a major institutional policy move. It ensured that the decision was based on transparent, coordinated policy development across units, consistent with the university’s commitment to self-critical assessment and reform.
The final phase of institutionalization required intensive, high-level coordination among the four critical stakeholder groups identified in the task force report: existing UROP leadership (to ensure continuity), the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Provost’s Office (for resource allocation and final approval), and the LSA Dean’s Office (for academic stewardship).
Dillard provided the necessary centralized authority. Her role in coordinating strategic initiatives and supporting academic success across all schools was essential to scaling the center’s activities beyond LSA’s traditional domain.
Joyce Sutton
Congratulations UROP Director, Michelle Ferrez for her vision and hard work! Also to the UROP team, research hosts and student Peer Facilitators.
Judith Malcolm
How exciting that the impressive work that UROP has done through the years introducing undergraduates to the experience of doing real research will be continued and expanded to a university wide program. Let’s remember the former UROP directors who made today’s expansion possible. Without their dedication and vision, this program would not have been primed for such growth.