Union has hosted this conference twice in the past decade and regularly sends 50 or more students to the conference when it is held on other campuses. NCUR provides an opportunity for more than 2,000 students in all disciplines from all over the country to make presentations of their scholarly and creative work to their peers and faculty members. The Charles Proteus Steinmetz Symposium, held at Union each May, features scholarly presentations and artistic achievements by about 250 Union students. Most of the work presented is the result of students' intensive independent work.
All departments require that seniors complete a significant writing assignment.
Each summer more than 80 students undertake research projects on campus, working directly with faculty. The College's own funds, as well as grants from a number of foundations, corporations, and individuals, are used to provide stipends and housing for students. Many students receive research grants from Union's Internal Education Foundation to travel to archives, obtain datasets, and run experiments. Union, together with Barnard, Colgate, Cornell, Hamilton, Manhattan, and St. Lawrence, is a member of the New York State Science Education Program. Students from the cluster colleges are invited to do research on their own or other cluster campuses.