Editorial: Researching research assistants

Currently, professors seek out assistants in an ad hoc manner, and so only a few students have knowledge about the available positions. A brief search of the Student Employment website — the specific purpose of which is to advertise on-campus employment opportunities — lists office work positions and a smattering of other jobs, none of which are research-oriented. But brief e-mails to several department managers confirm there are indeed professors looking to hire RAs — more, it seems, than students aware enough to take the jobs.

The lack of information available about RA positions is troubling given the benefits these positions confer on both students and professors. They foster greater interaction between undergraduates and professors, and working with an expert in a field can be a boon to students who plan to attend graduate schools where research experience is valued. Professors have significant resources from grants to hire RAs, and high-quality RAs can increase the productivity and quality of their research.

There are several ways to improve the current notification system to ensure a better flow of information about RA opportunities to all undergraduates. Though it is possible to obtain some information about RA positions by contacting departmental managers, it would be better to consolidate all information and improve advertising to make the search easier for both professors and students. One simple solution is to ask each department to maintain a database of positions so interested students — both in the department or those looking to join it — can seek out relevant opportunities.

In a similar vein, the Office of Student Employment or Career Services could maintain an easily accessible University-wide database that aggregates all RA and research-specific positions. Another possibility would be to better utilize the existing infrastructure of the Student Employment website. This would require an increased effort on the part of department managers to actively input RA requests into these systems as well as to communicate with professors to ensure they use them.

It is important to recognize that professors will still retain complete discretion over whom they hire. If professors only want to reach out to a select few students in their classes, they are certainly free to do so. But streamlining and increasing information about RA positions would benefit both students and professors significantly at little cost to the departments or the University.