Provost Ludden recently spoke to The Daily Campus editorial board regarding the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The ideas presented mark a new turn in SMU’s regard for the creativity and ingenuity of students.

The program would grant students the ability to do independent research of their own choosing with the guidance of a professor and the financial support of the University. The projects also present the opportunity for course credit, which is always an interesting prospect for diversifying class schedules.

Though programs like Big iDeas present similar opportunities, they are not widespread and have very little faculty involvement.

We, the Editorial Board of the Daily Campus, feel that this process is a step in a unique direction that will allow students to take full advantages of the opportunities for learning at SMU.

We appreciate the fact that the QEP will allow students from all majors to have a chance to participate. Whether art majors or mechanical engineering majors, we find it refreshing that this opportunity is taking the entire student body into account rather than a particular school or particular focus.

While we feel that this program is largely well thought out and beneficial for the student body, we have a few hesitations.

First, while credit and the opportunity to study your interests present a unique and exciting opportunity for students, we feel that, on the whole, the student body will probably not be eager to volunteer for this program when it first begins. Because of this, there needs to be more incentive for students to participate in the program.

Second, we feel that, as it stands, the projects will not be well publicized. While they are presented on a collective website, we feel that it would be more beneficial to the school if these projects were publicized in a print journal distributed at events such as alumni meetings, fundraising events and lectures that draw wide audiences.

Undergraduate journals are rare, but not unheard of. In fact, SMU already has one. The Tower Center releases a very successful political science undergraduate journal that does particularly well in print. We feel that the QEP would benefit from a similar structure.

Additionally, given the nature of the QEP it is necessarily vague. While we truly believe this is a unique and beneficial project that SMU is taking on, it is difficult to determine what real direction this will go or if it will even really take root with the undergraduate community.

Hopefully as SMU moves forward, they will hire dynamic faculty members to run the program that can stimulate interest on their own and that have the ability to focus what is currently a very broad idea.

But in the end, it will be up to the SMU student body to really take advantage of this exceptional opportunity. Few universities present their undergraduates with the ability to do their own work paid for by the university. Hopefully the undergraduate student body will recognize this and take full advantage of it.