GUIDELINES FOR NEW DEPARTMENTS, PROGRAMS, INSTITUTES,
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

The educational mandate of SUSB is described in the Master Plan of the Board of Trustees of the State University. That charge is elaborated in academic detail in the Mission Statement and periodic Master Plans of SUSB, which are developed in consultation with it faculties for review and approval by the Chancellor. It is the responsibility of the academic officers to plan, in consultation with the appropriate Senates or other governance bodies, the step necessary to implement the approved Master Plan of SUSB. The Master Plan is typically an academic rather than an organizational statement. Achievement of its goals may, with due concern for program diversity and quality, enrollment targets, and consonance with the mission of the campus, require creation of new departments, institutes, programs, schools and colleges.  Plans and schedules of initiation for such new units will be prepared by the academic officers in consultation with the appropriate governance bodies.

Departments and Programs:

1.         A department is an academic unit in a school or college offering a curriculum leading to a degree or certification and having a chairman who reports to the head of a college or school.

2.         A program, for the purpose of these guidelines, is an academic unit, reporting to the head of a college or school through a director, that offers a coordination of courses and other instructional or research activities that has a curriculum leading to a degree or certification. Programs are of two kinds:

A.  An interdisciplinary program may coordinate activities of two or more departments.

B.  A program may be an academic unit that by reason of its small size or stage of development has not been given departmental status.

Programs administered entirely within a department, such as the graduate programs or the undergraduate programs of a department, do not fall under these guidelines. Some grad programs are also interdisciplinary.

Institutes:

In order to best fulfill the mission of the University and to take advantage of opportunities, it may be advantageous to create institutes. These institutes will be of three different types.

 

I           An institute that requires no significant University resources, such as personnel and OTPS, and relies on faculty and staff that already have primary appointments in existing units.

II.           An institute that involves staffing from university resources, such as secretaries and professional employees, but whose faculty have primary appointments in existing units.

III.             An institute that involves faculty resources whose primary (50% or more effort) responsibility is the institute.

The academic administration may create Type I institutes and then inform the Executive Committee of their action.  In the case of the creation of Type II institutes, the Provost should submit a plan to the Executive Committee for its consideration.  The Executive Committee might ask appropriate Senate committees to review the proposal.  A response from the Executive Committee should be within two months of receipt of the proposal during the academic year.  Institutes of Type III will follow the same procedure as those for the creation of new departments, etc., and therefore, will involve full Senate review.

 

Procedures for New Departments, Programs,
Institutes III, and Schools

1.  The proposers of the new units, after consultation with the appropriate academic officers and faculty, will prepare a proposal which is drawn up in reasonable detail concerning the following:

a)         The need for the new unit, identification of the clients that it will serve, the way it will augment the University's offerings, and the way it will interact with existing academic units and programs.

b)         The curriculum or mission of the new unit.

C)         The resources needed for the unit personnel, budget, special equipment, space, etc.

d)         The resources available or anticipated for support of the unit.

e)         An assessment of existing library resources and a statement verifying the adequacy of these resources for the proposed unit.

2.         When the unit is housed entirely within one school or college, the appropriate Dean will transmit the proposal to the appropriate Senate for its consideration.  If the new unit involves more than one school or college, then the proposal should be submitted to all the appropriate Senates by the Deans. The Dean(s) will then forward the proposal with the comments from the Senate(s)to the Provost. The Provost will then submit the proposal to the Executive Committee of the University Senate. The Provost's submission should include a schedule for phasing-in of the unit, a description of the unit's ultimate order of magnitude, and the information specified above in "a" through "e".   The Executive Committee will send the proposal to the appropriate standing committees for review. After the receipt of their comments, they and the proposal will be presented to the Senate for its consideration. The submission to the full Senate will take place no later than four months after receipt of the proposal by the Executive Committee.

 

Procedures for New Schools and Colleges

The proposal for a new school or college should follow the same procedure as for a new department. The proposal, however, should normally include the recommendations from an external review committee of outstanding scholars qualified to advise the University on the academic and organizational issues that the proposal presents.

 

Procedures for Transfers, Combinations, Divisions
and Elimination of Units

Proposals to transfer, combine, divide, eliminate or elevate units should follow the procedures similar to the creation of a new unit. For example, the elevation of an institute of Type II to Type III would require full Senate evaluation, while elevation from Type I to Type II would involve the Executive Committee, and possibly the standing committees.

November 1986