On behalf of the students, faculty and staff of Keene State College, I am pleased to welcome you to our campus for the 2019 Northeast Regional Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity (URSCA) Conference of COPLAC, the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. This annual event provides the opportunity for northeastern COPLAC member institutions to celebrate the very best in faculty-mentored undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative endeavors.
The twenty-nine COPLAC member institutions are unified by their commitment to liberal arts and sciences, public education, and our student-centered missions, preparing students to be engaged citizens, lifelong learners, and adaptable to careers yet to emerge. COPLAC’s annual showcase of undergraduate research illustrates our shared commitment to high impact practices, including faculty mentorship, and establishes a broader community of peers for student networking and support.
Keene State College is proud to be a founding COPLAC institution. Our commitment to liberal arts education and the teacher-scholar-mentor model is the essence of the undergraduate experience on our campus. We are fortunate to have our COPLAC peer institutions standing with us and exemplifying the richness of the public liberal arts.
Our commitment to the liberal arts can be seen in the Putnam Science Center, where undergrads pursue research with a bio-medical focus; and in the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, currently exhibiting “This is Country,” a photo collection curated from Florentine Film’s most recent documentary series, Country Music, with an exhibit catalogue created by Keene State intern. In every building across campus, much like your own campuses, students and faculty are invested in collaboration, discovery, and making meaningful contributions as engaged citizens.
Thank you for being here and for supporting one another. Please join me in sincere appreciation to our colleagues at COPLAC for making all of this possible. We hope this conference provides you with inspiration, connections, and encouragement as you continue in your academic pursuits.
Sincerely, Melinda D. Treadwell, President, Keene State College
Are People the Main Asset to Any Organization Puja Thapa Faculty mentor: Marie Duggan Keene State College Are people the main assets to any organization? Do management decisions make a difference for manufacturing industry success? I explore theses question through on-site visits of three companies in Keene -- Miniature Precision Bearing (MPB), Markem, and Pneumo Tech -- and interviews with three employees who worked for a significant amount of time in Keene’s industries during a period of US industrial decline (1980 to 2010): Bob Rooney (MPB), Victor Dintino (MPB), and Don Sporborg (MPB). Is a company always supposed to treat people equally or is it acceptable to be unethical and lay off employees for the sake of cost reduction? According to Bob Rooney, maintaining a balance between strategy and ethic helps a company sustain itself. Thus, my conclusion is that the right balance between ethic and strategy while treating employees will make not just manufacturing business, but all business successful. Puja Thapa is a junior Business Management major from Kathmandu, Nepal. She plans to be involved in non-profits during her early career, and eventually be an entrepreneur.
