Organizational Units

A Center is a subordinate unit within an existing institute, department, school, or college that concentrates research, educational support and/or outreach efforts within a clearly defined academic area in ways that make a significant contribution to the unit of which they are a part. The Center Director is appointed by and reports to the head of the Institute, Department, School, or College of which it is a part.

An Institute is a distinct unit that typically spans multiple colleges and is frequently interdisciplinary. Their mission is promotion of research on some subject of broad concern and, often, the communication of this knowledge to a broader public. Institutes may engage in a variety of research, public service, and educational support activities. Institute Directors are normally appointed by and report to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement; the Dean(s) of the college(s) having faculty participating in any Institute will be kept informed of its activities. Alternately, an Institute is connected to a particular College and under the administrative oversight of its Dean. 

An Academic Department is an academic unit organized around a discipline or group of related disciplines. It serves as the tenure home for faculty; offers one or more degree programs; and offers courses, including courses required for its degree program(s). An Academic Department has personnel and curriculum committees consistent with relevant University policies, procedures, and collective bargaining agreements. It is led by a Head or a Chair who reports directly to the Dean of a College.

An Academic Program is an academic unit organized to provide instruction in a particular substantive area from a multi-disciplinary perspective and draws faculty participation from two or more departments. An Academic Program offers one or more degree programs and typically offers at least some of the courses required for its degree program(s). Participating tenure-system faculty hold appointments in Academic Departments, which are responsible for all personnel decisions. A Memorandum of Understanding between an Academic Program and participating Academic Departments may define a role for an Academic Program in departmental personnel decisions. A curriculum committee, executive committee, or similar body is responsible for an Academic Program's courses and credentials. An Academic Program is led by a Director who reports directly to the Dean of a College.

College: A group of faculty and degree programs organized for the purpose of providing coordination of and leadership for academic planning, resource management, and academic support. The Colleges represent the primary organizational framework for the academic enterprise.

A College has personnel and curriculum committees consistent with relevant University policies and procedures and collective bargaining agreements, through which relevant decisions of departments and programs are reviewed. A College is led by a Dean who reports directly to the Provost..

Academic Department: An academic unit organized around a discipline or group of related disciplines. An Academic Department serves as the tenure home for faculty; offers one or more degree programs; and offers courses, including courses required for its degree program(s).

An Academic Department has personnel and curriculum committees consistent with relevant University policies and procedures and collective bargaining agreements. It is led by a Head or a Chair who reports directly to the Dean of a College.

Academic Program: An academic unit that is organized with a multi-disciplinary perspective and that draws faculty participation from two or more departments. An Academic Program offers one or more degree programs and typically offers at least some of the courses required for its degree program(s).

Participating tenure-system faculty hold appointments in Academic Departments, which are responsible for all personnel decisions. A Memorandum of Understanding between an Academic Program and participating Academic Departments may define a role for an Academic Program in departmental personnel decisions. A curriculum committee, executive committee, or similar body is responsible for an Academic Program’s courses and credentials. It is led by a Director who reports directly to the Dean of a College.

Source: Sen. Doc. No. 12-021A

A College is a grouping of faculty and degree programs organized for the purpose of providing coordination of and leadership for academic planning, resource management, and academic support. The Colleges are the primary organizational framework for the academic enterprise. A College has personnel and curriculum committees consistent with relevant University policies and procedures and collective bargaining agreements, through which relevant decisions of departments and programs clustered within it are reviewed. A College is led by a Dean who reports directly to the Provost.

1. Individual faculty members or groups of faculty members may initiate a proposal to create a Center or Institute. They should be sure they have the support of their department head/chair (for a new center) or their dean or the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement (for a new institute) since such support is key to being able to provide the answer to most questions about the spaces and resources available to the proposed Center or Institute. 
2. Campus approval of new Centers and Institutes is based, at minimum, on the appropriateness of the Center's or lnstitute's proposed activities to the mission and goals of the campus, and the adequacy of resources, including both capital investment and operating funds. 
3. The formal process for creating a new Center or Institute begins with seeking interim approval by a written request from the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement. The forms required for preliminary approval cover many of the questions that appear on the forms for seeking permanent approval. 
4. The Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement decides whether to recommend interim approval to the Provost and Chancellor. If they concur, the proposed Center or Institute may operate for a maximum of three years. 
5. Participating faculty, particularly the Center's or lnstitute's Director(s) should be preparing for the process of securing permanent approval soon after securing interim approval, and actively assessing whether their plans are advancing as expected and the anticipated resources becoming available. 
6. Proposals for permanent approval of a Center or Institute are filed on the CCMS using the form for create a new Center or Institute. To continue operating after expiration of the initial three years, the Center or Institute needs to have secured permanent approval through the process outlined in paragraph g below.
7. Grant of permanent approval involves consideration and recommendation of the appropriate Faculty Senate Councils and/or Committees as determined by the Rules Committee, followed, if they so recommend, by approval of the full Faculty Senate. The Provost and Chancellor of this campus must then approve and submit the proposal to the President. The President has final authority to give permanent approval to a Center or Institute. 

The term "School" is a designation that can be given to an Academic Department, Academic Program, or group thereof to promote a particular identity. This identity may be relevant to recruitment of students or faculty, public relations, development, research, instruction, outreach, or any other goals or activities of the participating unit(s). In the case of a single Department or Program designated as a School, that Department's Head or Chair or that Program's Director becomes the Director of the School. In the case of multiple units seeking designation as a School, an agreement approved at the time of designation defines how a Department Head or Chair or Program Director will be chosen as the Director of the School. The inter-unit agreement may also define cooperative relationships in marketing, recruiting, or other appropriate areas. Schools per se do not represent an organizational level or structure. All personnel, curricular and fiscal decisions occur at the Academic Department or Academic Program level. The designation of a Director in a multi-unit School does not establish or imply a reporting relationship with the Heads, Chairs, or Directors of the School's constituent units. A multi-unit School does not have a personnel or curriculum committee, and it does not serve as the tenure home for faculty. A School is organized within a single College, although it may draw participation from units in other Colleges, and its operation are to be consistent with the policies and priorities of the College within which it is organized. A College Dean may choose to augment the functions of a School or a School Director, or make specific financial, staffing, or other arrangements as part of the normal operations of the College. College Deans may also choose to enter into agreements with one another regarding the operation of Schools that involve participation of units from more than one College.

Sen. Doc. No. 12-021A authorizing creation of Schools within Colleges acknowledges that "If such agreements prove insufficient for cross-College schools, then additional enabling legislation may be needed in the future."

1. Proposals to create new departments are initiated by colleges. They are reviewed by the Academic Matters, Research Council, Graduate, and Budget & Planning Councils before being taken up in the Faculty Senate. 
2. New departments are created when some field of intellectual endeavor has crystallized into a sufficiently coherent body of theory and methods of investigation to warrant housing the new field in a distinct primary academic unit serving as tenure home for the faculty involved. New departments most often arise in the context of department or college reorganizations, but might also involve converting Program into a Department. Creating a new department is a very significant step. As Provost Katherine Newman wrote regarding the proposal to create the Department of Biomedical Engineering in October 2015, "We do not launch new departments lightly. They represent a significant investment in treasure and people." 
3. Proposals to create a new department should not be posted to the CCMS until the proposers know that there is support in the central administration, support from the college in which the new department would be housed, and acceptance by any college whose departments would be directly affected by creation of the new department, and those directly affected departments or programs.
   "Directly affected" means that the new department would become the current or future tenure home for one or more tenure system faculty members in another department or that its graduate or undergraduate programs appear likely to compete for students directly with another department or program. 
4. When proposals to create new academic programs also involve organizing a new academic department to house them, the proposals to create the new department should be made concurrently with the request for preliminary authorization of the proposal(s) to create the degree programs. Since a new degree program in an emerging field is very likely to require creation of new courses, having the department and corresponding course rubric in place facilitates building the new program.

1. Departments, including Colleges that consist of a single Department, undergo periodic Academic Quality and Development (AQAD) review, as required by the UMass system-wide Performance Measurement System. The primary purposes of an AQAD review are to assess the core academic functions of teaching, learning, research/professional/creative activity, public service, and academic outreach on a regular basis. The campus administration has established procedures for implementing AQADs consistent with the System-level guidelines adopted by the Board of Trustees in Trustee Doc. T98-033 (1998). For Departments or Colleges consisting of a single Department that are also accredited by a professional association, the AQAD and accreditation review processes are combined and occur as required for maintaining the professional accreditation. 
2. The AQAD process begins with a department self-study written to answer the AQAD review questions. A committee of at least two outside scholars in the discipline or interdisciplinary field, preferably from other Rl universities and with administrative experience as a department chair, reviews the self-study, visits campus to interview department faculty, staff, and students, and provides its evaluation to the Provost. Four written reports - the department's or program's self-assessment, the report from external reviewers, a department's or program's response to the external report that includes an action plan, and the Dean's response to the action plan - document the review and the department's or program's response.

[Detailed information about AQAD review is available in Campus Procedures for Academic Quality and Assessment, 2017, available at
https://www.umass.edu/oapa/sites/default/fiIes/pdf/ aqad/aqad_procedures-20171004. pdf] 

1. Reorganizing a Department can take various forms, including merger of two or more departments into one, division of one department into two or more, or inserting or removing a distinct academic program from a department's administrative purview. Renaming a department while all else remains the same is not a substantive reorganization. However a renaming is a sufficiently significant change that proposals to rename a department are also considered under the process for revising an academic program. This is particularly important when, as is usually the case, a department name change is occurring in conjunction with a degree program name change. 
2. Reorganizing a department is also considered under the process for revising an academic program given in Revision of Academic Programs. The precise process depends on the extent to which the reorganization will also involve changes to any of the academic programs offered by that department. 
3. Proposals to reorganize a department do not require either preliminary approval from the Board of Trustees or the Board of Higher Education or approval at those levels after campus governance approval. 

1. After consultation with the other, either the Provost or a Dean may propose the reduction of one of more academic units by developing a brief relating to each unit setting forth the reasons why reduction is being proposed and specifying the extent of the proposed reduction. The brief must address each of the criteria listed in the Reduction Document, especially those pertaining to scholarly and creative activities. 
2. The unit or units proposed for reduction shall be given 14 days to provide an initial written response, and to convene a meeting with the Dean or Provost to discuss the proposed reduction. In preparing an initial response to the Provost's or Dean's brief, the unit must address each of the criteria listed in the Reduction document and may also suggest additional criteria to be used in the evaluation. 
3. After the unit's response has been received, the Provost will consider it. If the decision is to proceed with proposing reduction, the Provost must, within 7 days, create and distribute an executive summary of the brief and the unit's response to all faculty within [the MBU]. Individual faculty members in the MBU may provide written comments to the provost within 7 days of receiving the executive summary. 
4. The Provost shall consider the all the materials received and determine, within 14 days of receiving all responses to the executive summary, whether to proceed with a Faculty Senate review. If the decision is to proceed, the Provost will forward the brief, the unit's response, and all comments submitted by others to the Faculty Senate Secretary.
5. Consideration by the Faculty Senate:
   1. The Secretary shall forthwith advise the Rules Committee of the Provost's request and forward all relevant documents to the Academic Matters Council.
   2. The Academic Matters Council shall conduct a review, which shall address, but need not be limited to, the use of all the criteria in the reduction document as well as the special criteria suggested by the unit. The Dean of the MBU and representatives of the unit shall be invited to meet with the Council.
   3. Within 42 days of receiving the Provost's request, the Academic Matters Council shall prepare a preliminary report and send it to the unit under review. The unit shall have 7 days to provide a response.
   4. The Academic Matters Council shall prepare a special report for the Faculty Senate including its evaluation, the unit's response when provided, and an appropriate motion in the form of a recommendation to the campus Administration.
   5. The Academic Matters Council shall submit its special report to the Faculty Senate Secretary with a request that it be placed on the agenda of the next Faculty Senate meeting.
   6. The Faculty Senate will consider the Academic Matters Council's report and vote on its motion. A report of the Faculty Senate's action regarding each unit considered for reduction shall be transmitted to the Provost by the Faculty Senate Secretary.

1. Termination of a Department occurs when all of the academic programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels, including certificates and minors, are terminated, or the administration of all of its programs is transferred to another department as part of a reorganization. 
2. Termination of a Department or a Program for financial reasons is regarded as a last resort, with reduction in size as the preferred method of addressing anticipated persistent budget shortfalls. 
3. Decisions about whether to terminate a Department for financial reasons shall be made according to the following procedure: 
   1. The Provost or a Dean may request a review of a department by developing a brief setting forth the reasons why a review appears necessary. The brief shall address each of the criteria listed in the policy on Termination of Academic Programs, especially those pertaining to centrality and scholarly and/or creative activities. 
   2. The department proposed for review shall have an opportunity to provide an initial written response. This initial response must also address each of the criteria listed in the Termination document and may suggest any additional special criteria that should be considered in any subsequent review. 
   3. The Provost‘s or Dean's brief and the department’s response shall be made promptly and readily available to all [MBU] faculty members. The Dean shall then call an [MBU] faculty meeting to consider a motion to recommend a full review the department. The brief and the response will be discussed and the opinions of the faculty regarding the future of the department ascertained before any procedural or substantive vote on the motion is taken. A summary of the meeting¹s proceedings and the result of any and all votes shall be forwarded to the Provost, regardless of the outcomes of votes. 
   4. The Provost then reviews the brief, the response, and the summary of the faculty meeting proceedings and determine whether a full review should be initiated. If the Provost determines that a full review is not desirable, the Provost will inform the Faculty Senate Secretary and the Dean and no further action to terminate the program will be taken. If the Provost determines that a full review is desirable, a request for a full review by the faculty senate will be addressed to the Faculty Senate Secretary, accompanied by the brief and the department’s initial response. 
   5. Upon receipt of a request to review a department for termination, the Faculty Senate Secretary shall forthwith inform the Rules Committee and relay the brief and the program's initial response to the Academic Matters Council. 
   6. The Academic Matters Council shall conduct a full review including, but not limited to, assessment on the basis of all the criteria in the Termination policy as well as any of the special criteria identified by the department in its initial response. The department shall submit a comprehensive written response to the Council for consideration during its deliberations. The Dean and representatives of the department shall be given an opportunity to meet with the Council and to submit afterward a response to the Council's special report to the Faculty Senate. 
   7. The Academic Matters Council shall prepare a special report, including an appropriate motion and a synopsis of the dean's and the program's responses if they have been submitted. The Council's report shall contain explicit statements of the criteria used for evaluation, the way the criteria were used in evaluation, and the relative importance {e.g., very important, important, not important) attached to each criterion. The motion shall be in the form of a recommendation to the campus administration. The Council's special report and motion shall be submitted to the Rules Committee with a request that it be placed on the agenda of the next Faculty Senate meeting. 
   8. The Faculty Senate shall consider the Academic Matters Council's report and vote on the motion it recommends. The Faculty Senate Secretary shall transmit a report of the Faculty Senate's action to the Provost. Should the Provost decide to recommend termination of the department to the Board of Trustees, the report of the Faculty Senate shall accompany the Provost's recommendation. 

[Sections 111.D.4 and 5 are based mainly on the Procedures for University Approval of New Academic Degree Programs, Program Changes, and Program Termination (Board of Trustees Document T92-012 as amended on 8/6/97) and the general provisions in Sen. Docs. Nos. 89-054A, 90-064, and 91-014B.]

1. The term "Program" is also used to refer to the institutional structure created for a group of faculty who administer an authorized degree program that operates as a distinct entity within a department or a college. Affiliated tenure system faculty have their tenure homes in departments, and program directors are chosen from among the tenured faculty affiliated with the program. 
2. Proposals to create programs are considered through the same process and according to the same criteria as creation of a new department, as outlined in Revision of Academic Programs

1. Programs also undergo periodic Academic Quality and Development (AQAD) review, as required by the UMass system-wide Performance Measurement System. The primary purposes of an AQAD review are to assess the core academic functions of teaching, learning, research/professional/creative activity, public service, and academic outreach on a regular basis. The campus administration has established procedures for implementing AQADs consistent with the System-level guidelines adopted by the Board of Trustees in Trustee Doc. T98-033 (1998). 
2. The AQAD process begins with a department or program self-study written to answer the AQAD review questions. A committee of at least two outside scholars in the discipline or interdisciplinary field, preferably from other R1 universities and with administrative experience as a department chair, reviews the self-study, visits campus to interview department faculty, staff, and students, and provides its evaluation to the Provost. Four written reports - the department's or program's self-assessment, the report from external reviewers, a department's or program's response to the external report that includes an action plan, and the Dean's response to the action plan - document the review and the department's or program's response. 

[Detailed information about AQAD review is available in Trustee Doc. T98-033, which can be found on the Trustee Policies page.] 

1. Reorganizing a Program can take various forms, including shift to department status, subsumption within a department, merger with a department while remaining a distinct organizational entity within that department, merger with one or more other programs, or division of an existing program into two or more programs. Renaming a program while all else remains the same is not a substantive reorganization. However a renaming is a sufficiently significant change that proposals to rename a department are also considered under the process for revising an academic program. This is particularly important when, as is usually the case, a department name change is occurring in conjunction with a degree program name change. 
2. If reorganization of a program involves a shift to department status, that shift will be considered under the process for creating a new department specified in Section II1.D.1 Other forms of reorganizing a program are considered under the process for revising an academic program given in Section I1.B.4. The precise process depends on the extent to which the reorganization will also involve changes to any of the academic programs offered by that program. 
3. Proposals to reorganize a program do not require preliminary approval from the Board of Trustees or the Board of Higher Education, but do require approval at those levels after campus governance approval. 

Reduction of a program is considered under the procedures for reduction of a department specified in Reduction of Departments. 

1. A decision to terminate all of the degree programs administered by a group of faculty organized as a program entails termination of that organizational structure, as does transfer of all its degree programs to one or more departments or other programs. 
2. Termination of a Program for financial reasons is regarded as a last resort, with reduction in size as the preferred method of addressing anticipated persistent budget shortfalls. 
3. Termination of a Program for financial reasons is considered under the procedures for termination of a Department specified in Termination of Departments. 

1. Proposals to create a School within a College need support from the Dean of College in which the School will be housed. Those considering the creation of a School within a College should also consult with the Provost's Office before initiating the formal process.
2. Proposals to form a School must include the following components:
   1. The proposed name of the School and a list of the participating units. 
   2. A rationale indicating the desirability of establishing a particular identity and its potential impact on recruitment of students or faculty, public relations, development, research, instruction, outreach, or other goals or activities of the participating unit(s). Precedents at other universities of comparable stature may also be noted. 
   3. In the case of multi-unit Schools, a written agreement specifying how the Director will be selected and any cooperative relationships among the participating units. 
   4. Evidence of support from the faculty of the participating unit(s) and any other major stakeholders. 
   5. Signature approval by the Dean of the College in which the School will be organized. If any of the participating Departments or Programs report to other Deans, the signatures of those Deans are required as well. 
   6. Signature approval of the Heads or Chairs of all participating Academic Departments and the Directors of all participating Academic Programs. 
3. Proposals to create a School within a College are reviewed by the Research Council and the Academic Program and Budget Council before being submitted to the Faculty Senate.

There is no explicit policy on this point. 

There is no explicit policy on this point. 

[The policy on creation of Schools within Colleges is given in Senate Document 12-021A.] 

1. Proposals to create a new college are initiated by the Provost. They are reviewed by the Academic Matters, Academic Priorities, Graduate, Budget & Planning, and Research Councils before being taken up in the Faculty Senate.
2. Proposals to create a new college receive very careful consideration because of the large commitment of resources involved.
3. Proposals to create a new college should not be posted to the CCMS until the provost is satisfied that there is support for creation of the new college in the central administration and the departments that would be part of the new college, support or at least acceptance by any college that would lose departments or programs to the new college, and support from other areas of campus.
4. After approval by the Faculty Senate, proposals to create a new college must also be approved by the Board of Trustees.

1. Reorganizing a college can involve either the merging two or more existing colleges into one, or transferring departments and/or programs between existing colleges.
2. Proposals to detach departments and/or programs from one or more existing colleges to form a new college are treated as proposals to create a new college, not as proposals to reorganize an existing one. When creation of the new college is approved, any reorganization of an existing college or colleges implied by creation of the new college takes effect simultaneously.

Reduction of a college is proposed by the Provost after consultation with the Dean and considered under the procedures for reduction of a department.

1. When termination of a college is implied in proposed reorganizations, it takes effect as a consequence of the approved reorganization.
2. Termination of a College is also implied in termination of all the academic programs offered by departments or programs located within that college.
3. Termination of a College for financial reasons would occur only if all of the academic programs offered by departments and programs within it are terminated. As with departments and programs, reduction in size is the preferred method of addressing anticipated persistent budget shortfalls.
4. Should termination of a college be considered separately from a reorganization or as a step towards terminating all the academic programs offered within it, the Provost will initiate the process by developing a brief setting out the reasons why a review appears necessary.
5. In all other respects, the procedure followed is identical to the procedure for terminating departments.