Updated as of 8:43 p.m. on May 6 to include data visualizations.
Elon University’s Student Undergraduate Research Forum is an annual tradition — however, this year’s SURF day was smaller than last year’s historic high.
Featuring 268 presentations, SURF 2025 was closer in scale to SURF 2023’s 270 presentations than last year’s 321 presentations.
Not all presentation types saw decreases. There were more presentations self-identified as “data intensive” in 2025 compared with 2024, but there were less sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion presentations compared to last year. DEI presentations shrank the most, from 72 presentations in 2024 to 42 presentations in 2025.
The reduction in presentations comes amid a number of executive orders that revoke federal research funding and limit DEI policies in higher education. However, all research labels for SURF presentations are self-identified. The reductions by label may reflect reluctance to identify as DEI or sustainability related rather than an actual reduction in the number of DEI and sustainability related projects.
Junior history major Athena Vizuete presented on the history of Black organizing and Ku Klux Klan violence in Alamance County. Vizuete’s presentation was one of those self-identified as DEI related, but DEI was not their motive to do the research.
“Primarily, I did choose it because I’m from North Carolina and interested in North Carolina history,” Vizuete said.
Attendees gather in Alumni Gym to support and listen to researchers' poster presentations on their studies on April 29 during SURF.
Even a presentation related to a political hot topic — tariffs — had a politically-independent origin. During his presentation on the impact of the 2018 steel tariffs on U.S. industries that require steel, senior economics major Ryan Gehring said his research was inspired by his Pittsburgh heritage and his family members in the steel industry.
“Just to be clear, I’m not trying to pick sides or say that the Trump administration is wrong for using the tariffs,” Gehring said during his presentation. “I understand that there are many reasons for why someone would want to use tariffs politically. In my case, I just want to learn more and see how they affect different groups of people.”
Vizuete, in addition to presenting their history research this year, presented at SURF 2023 on the social and political impact of soccer in Algeria during the Algerian revolution. Vizuete said they hadn’t noticed any major changes in SURF Day during their time presenting research at Elon.
“We got a good crowd this time and the first time, so I feel like it hasn’t changed that much,” Vizuete said.