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For any questions please send e-mail to: NDSU.Policy.Manual@ndsu.edu

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SECTION 717: RESEARCH UNITS - ESTABLISHING/EVALUATING

SOURCE: NDSU PRESIDENT

1. Premises

   1.1

   The three basic purposes of a university are to seek, convey, and preserve knowledge. Thus, for many essential and continuing reasons, universities are generally structured to reflect the organization of knowledge modified to varying degrees by perceived social and intellectual needs and opportunities. These forces evolve with time and often necessitate both creative integration across disciplines, between organizational units, and across the spectrum of basic research to applied knowledge, and the development of new tools and techniques.

   1.2

   In many instances--although certainly not all--fostering such creative integration in the research and public service domain will require new organized units, such as centers and institutes. Such units will focus on research and/or public service activities, will share certain characteristics, and will be required to interact effectively with academic units and other research and public service units.

   1.3

   At the same time, these units will be diverse. Some will respond to perceived needs and common interests of the faculty, others to external needs and opportunities, and still others to a mixture of the two. Some units will focus on public service, some on research, and some on both. The extent of involvement with traditional academic units will vary, but will tend to grow with the expansion of graduate research and education. Some units will be free-standing, others will be nested, depending on institutional priorities and administrative effectiveness.

2. General Policy Statement

   The University encourages the formation of organized research and public service units when such formal designation will address University priorities, enhance the University's ability to fulfill its missions, and permit a more effective allocation of University resources.

3. Purposes of Organized Research and Public Service Units

   3.1

   Organized research and public service units effect an administrative realignment of faculty to:

   3.1.1

   provide for effective faculty participation in interdisciplinary or other groups to address state, regional, and national needs or to respond to intellectual opportunities;

   3.1.2

   foster communication and interchange within the university community and/or between the university community and external clientele groups at the state, regional, or national level; or

   3.1.3

   provide leadership and focus to the University's research and public service efforts in selected areas of recognized importance.

   3.2

   Such units support the work of traditional academic departments in many ways, but differ from these units in function and membership. Whereas the faculty composition of an academic department remains relatively constant, membership in organized research and public service units is more dynamic. Interdisciplinary groupings are formed, reshaped, and dissolved in response to perceived programmatic needs and opportunities and in keeping with changing faculty interests and availability. Organized research units support graduate and undergraduate instruction in many ways, but generally offer courses only as joint offerings through academic departments.

4. Procedures

   4.1

   Review and approval or disapproval of proposals for the creation of organized research and public service units will be conducted according to the following procedures.

   4.1.1

   Applicants should submit to the President a "Request to Establish a Center/Institute (C/I) at NDSU."

   4.1.2

   The "request" will be evaluated through the appropriate deans, department chairs, and directors. The "request" may be revised as necessary to assure the maximum effectiveness of the proposed unit and to certify any resource commitments.

   4.1.3

   Normally, the decision to approve or disapprove the creation of a proposed unit will be made by the President upon the advice of the Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs and Finance and Administration and of others with whom the President may wish to consult. In some instances, approval by the Board of Higher Education may be required.

5. Evaluation

   5.1

   Each organized research or public service unit should be reviewed at three-year intervals. The self evaluation will consider costs and stated objectives, as well as benefits to the University and its clienteles in light of the University's priorities and resources. A decision as to the continuation, elimination, or alteration of the unit in question will be made by the President upon completion of the evaluation.

   5.2

   Currently existing research and public service units are to be evaluated in accordance with these procedures and in a sequence to be determined by the President's Office.

6. Office of Graduate Studies and Research Administration
   The Office of Graduate Studies and Research Administration will maintain a notebook of C/Is at NDSU and provide support for submitting requests. C/I directors are requested to keep the notebook information up-to-date.

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Carter V. Good, Editor, Dictionary of Education. Prepared under the auspices of Phi Delta Kappa, 2nd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Inc., pp. 79, 289. Center: Space and equipment within a department where a certain activity is carried on. Institute: a separate institution (an established complex or pattern of social or culture traits that has some degree of permanence even though the individuals within it may change; an organization such as a school, church, or hospital, designed to serve some social purpose or end) or organization designed to establish a relatively limited area of research or education, as the Institute of Advanced Study or Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

HISTORY: February 1996, October 2007