Policies & Guidelines

An academic department is a campus unit officially recognized as such. Ordinarily a department offers one or more academic programs, maintains a separate budget, and may serve as the home unit for tenure track faculty. Units satisfying these criteria that are not officially recognized as such are not academic departments.

The required on-campus steps include review by the Academic Planning Advisory Committee (APAC), by the Senate PCC Committee, and by the Senate. There is no specific format required for the necessary documentation. Issues that will arise when a new department is proposed will include the academic maturity of the programs offered, national norms for the existence of similar departments, and the adequacy of available resources. Issues that will arise in relation either to a proposed new department or to a proposed new name will include potential conflict with the mission or the name of existing departments and programs. Upon approval by the Senate and President, the proposal will be sent to the Chancellor. Although formal approval by the Board of Regents is required, the Board has delegated its approval authority to the Chancellor. This is pro-forma in most cases. In potentially contentious cases the Chancellor is likely to consult with the Board before acting.

The required steps are the same as described above. However, the proposal must respond to questions concerning the tenure home of affected faculty, the unit that will be responsible for offering affected academic programs, the unit affiliation of affected staff, and the advising and support arrangements for affected students. All members of the department(s) involved must have the opportunity to vote on the action, and the votes must be reported in the proposal. In particular, when departments are to be split, each tenure track faculty member will be allowed to choose the department that will become his or her tenure home, and appropriate budget arrangements will be made to enable this choice.

A proposal to close an academic department may be non-adversarial, arising from a College as part of a planned reconfiguration of its academic structure. In that case, the considerations of in the section on Merging or Splitting Academic Departments apply.

A proposal to close down an academic department may also be adversarial, imposed upon the Department or College by the Office of Academic Affairs, based on programmatic, quality, or fiscal considerations. In this case, special discontinuation procedures have been established allowing for full participation by the campus community in the decision. No specific formats are required for the extensive documentation needed in these cases.

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Centers, Institutes and similar groups and organizations form useful devices for organizing faculty and staff from different disciplines to focus on teaching, research, and/or service in an area of common interest. Centers and Institutes should be justified on the basis of their contributions to specified missions of research and service and by their relationship to instructional programs at the institution. The establishment of these units is governed by University System of Maryland rules and University of Maryland institutional rules. In brief, the proposal is submitted to Academic Affairs by a Dean (or Deans) after approval by the College(s) PCC Committee(s). Issues to be addressed in the proposal are laid out in the institutional rules document. Prior discussion with the Office of the Vice President for Research may be helpful. The Provost may approve the establishment of a Center. Establishing an Institute requires the approval of the President, who must inform the Chancellor of the fact.

Centers and institutes are expected to be reviewed on a periodic basis for continued viability, relevance, compliance with safety and regulatory requirements, and contribution to the University’s mission.

Our office keeps a list of centers and institutes. Contact our office for more information.

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