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Administrative policy and procedures regarding academic administrative structures: institutes
- Purpose. The university recognizes and designates several types of academic administrative structures that serve to facilitate its academic mission. Institutes created under this policy provide an organizational identity to selected programs and participating faculty, staff and students and supplement and complement the mission of academic units. However, institutes shall not serve as the site of primary academic appointments for faculty nor shall they offer any academic degree or certificate.
- Definitions.
- Institute. An academic administrative structure that facilitates and administers comprehensive multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research, education and service. While institutes may focus primarily on research and scholarship, they can also provide an organizational identity to cross-campus education and service programs and participating faculty, staff and students and, by doing so, supplement, complement and bridge the individual missions of multiple academic departments, schools and colleges.
- Multi-disciplinary – activities that draw on knowledge from different disciplines. (3) Inter-disciplinary – activities that depend on the intersection and synergies between different disciplines.
- Implementation.
- An institute may only be created to facilitate comprehensive multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research, education and service on a major problem or on a cluster of significant related topics or issues. The topics or issues that provide the focus for the institute shall involve multiple academic units and incorporate a university-wide perspective.
- An institute must serve all three of the following multi-mission criteria in its activities: research, education and service.
- An institute shall be established or eliminated by the board of trustees upon the recommendation of the president, provost, vice president for research and sponsored programs, educational policies council and faculty senate. Prior to recommending a substantial modification, the president, provost and vice president for research and sponsored programs shall consider the recommendations of the curricular and governance bodies deemed appropriate through consultation with the faculty senate chair. The provost, in consultation with the vice president for research and sponsored programs, shall be responsible for maintaining and communicating the format, process and minimum requirements for such recommendation.
- The provost, in consultation with the vice president for research and sponsored programs, may establish a research initiative as an initial structure to test the viability of potential institute, prior to recommending the establishment of an institute.
- A director shall serve as the administrator for an institute and shall be appointed by the provost in consultation with the vice president for research and sponsored programs. The director shall be responsible for filing an annual report with the provost and vice president for research and sponsored programs. The specific requirements addressed by the annual report shall be established by the provost in consultation with the vice president for research and sponsored programs.
- Institutes shall adhere to operational procedures established and maintained by the vice president for research and sponsored programs.
- Review procedures for institutes.
- Unless an exception is requested by the director and approved by the provost in consultation with the vice president for research and sponsored programs, all institutes will be reviewed every five years. The provost, in consultation with the vice president for research and sponsored programs, shall be responsible for maintaining and communicating the format, process and minimum requirements for such review.
- Each review will conclude with a recommendation to the provost and vice president for research and sponsored programs to continue, modify, or abolish the structure of the institute. In addition to the results of any review conducted, an institute may be abolished as a result of a review or abandoned as a result of continued inactivity in excess of one academic year.
Policy Effective Date:
Jul 01, 2022