POLICY ON ORGANIZED RESEARCH UNITS
Approved November 19, 1993

DEFINITION. An organized research unit shall consist primarily of an interdepartmental group of faculty members and students on a single campus or on several campuses engaged in research. The unit's activities may be supported by additional personnel and facilities.

AUTHORITY. Organized research units shall be established and disestablished as approved by the President, who shall seek the advice of Chancellors and the Academic Senate. The President shall report to The Regents all major reorganizations affecting organized research units. No unit may be established until review as prescribed by the President has been completed, nor may a unit be continued without periodic review.

ADMINISTRATION. The chief academic officer of an organized research unit shall be a tenured member of the faculty, unless some other arrangement is specifically authorized by the President. Directors of units serving a single campus are appointed by the Chancellor of the campus. Directors of Universitywide units are appointed by the President. Rules governing the establishment, approval, funding, operation, and review of the units; appointment and review of directors, personnel matters; and all other policies and procedures relating to organized research units shall be issued by the President in consultation with the Chancellors and appropriate bodies of the Academic Senate.

PURPOSE. Organized research units may be established within the University to contribute to the general goals of the University, and in particular to strengthen inter-disciplinary programs of research and teaching conducted by the faculty, as well as to provide graduate and post-doctoral students with added research opportunities, facilities, and assistance. Facilitation of public services related to the University's research programs may be an associated objective of some organized research units, particularly those whose activities include the pursuit of applied or problem-oriented research directed toward the solution of complex contemporary problems.

SCOPE. An organized research unit shall be interdisciplinary in scope, involving the faculty and students of two or more departments of instruction and research. An organized research unit shall not be established if its research objectives are essentially the same as those of an existing department. Unnecessary duplication among campuses shall be discouraged. An organized research unit is expected to provide opportunities for the participation of students in its activities. Each unit shall seek to make its facilities available to qualified staff members from other campuses; budgetary provision for intercampus travel will be made to the extent possible. Some units may be designated as Universitywide Multicampus research units, either because their facilities are for joint use by several or all campuses, or because facilities are located in several places on or adjacent to more than one campus.

FUNDING. The activities of an organized research unit may be funded by budgetary allocations, or from extramurally funds sought for the purpose, or both. The Regents appreciate the importance of extramurally funded research in graduate education and recognize the desirability of providing University support from State funds of at least part of the cost of administering research programs.

FACULTY PARTICIPATION. Organized research units shall receive no budgeted provision for faculty positions and shall confer no professorial titles, but persons holding such titles by virtue of their appointment in an academic department may be compensated for the portion of their time devoted to work in an organized research unit by appointment to the appropriate title in the professional research series or to an appropriate academic-administrative title. Any exceptions to the foregoing rule must be specifically authorized by the President.

EXCEPTIONS. Certain organized research units are, for historical reasons, exempt from some aspects of policies and procedures that apply to organized research units generally. These units are enumerated in the President's Administrative Policies and Procedures Concerning Organized Research Units; the nature of the exemptions is set forth in separate documents to be developed for each unit.