The University of North Texas (UNT) Board of Regents specifies that each Bureau, Center, Institute, and Laboratory that has been organized as a research and/or service unit must be reviewed on a periodic basis to determine if a continuing need exists for the unit in its present form, if conditions should be assigned to its further existence, or if the unit should be disbanded. The research and service components of degree-granting Bureaus, Centers, Institutes, and Laboratories are included under this policy. The provost and vice president for academic affairs has the responsibility of reviewing organized research and service units. The provost and vice president for academic affairs must establish dates for these reviews, to be known as "Sunset Reviews", so that all such units are reviewed at least every five years.

Process for Sunset Reviews

1. The provost and vice president for academic affairs schedules the review of a unit after conferring with the dean (or other administrator) of the college or school who has budgetary responsibility for the units. In this document, that person is named the dean.

2. At least sixty days prior to the review, the provost and vice president for academic affairs informs the director of the unit that the review will occur and requests that the director begin preparing a report and collecting information about the unit. The report should include the information below, and the Academic Affairs Office will provide a reporting form. Brevity and simplicity will be valued. Reports submitted to external funding agencies may be used instead to supply the information.

A. History of the organization of the unit.

B. Goals and objectives of the unit.

C. Activities and/or projects of the unit and significant accomplishments during the past five years.

D. Financial summary showing the expenditures from state and local funds in each of the major budget categories (salary, wages, operating expenses, travel, and cost sharing as well as capital outlay) and showing all revenues received, including the sources and the amounts of each over the past five years.

3. The completed report should be submitted to the dean who has budgetary responsibility for the unit. The dean then attaches an assessment of the goals, objectives, and accomplishments of the unit as well as recommendations for its future.

4. The provost and vice president for academic affairs appoints three faculty members to serve on the Sunset Review Committee for the unit, one of whom shall be a center director.  The provost and vice president for academic affairs also appoints one of these three members to serve as chair.

5. After the reports and supplementary materials have been received from the dean and director of the unit, the Sunset Review Committee schedules meetings with the dean of the college, the director of the unit, and representative faculty and staff associated with the unit. The facilities assigned to the unit will also be inspected by the review committee. The questions asked by the review committee should be designed to determine whether the stated goals and objectives are being met, and to assess the value of the unit. The Sunset Review Committee will consider the following measures of success when evaluating the unit:

A. Is the unit able to attract strong outside funding for its activities?

B. Is the unit advancing knowledge or performing a valuable service in a manner that would be unlikely to occur at UNT if the unit did not exist?

C. Is the unit an important vehicle for interdisciplinary research?

6. The review committee prepares a preliminary report that gives an assessment of the center's activities and provides recommendations. Included will be a recommendation for continuation or dis-establishment with a justification for the recommendation. It may be decided in some cases that the activities could be carried out by individual faculty members or by cooperating faculty members as part of their research or service responsibilities to their academic units and their own professional development, and, therefore, an organized unit is not needed. If the unit is recommended for continuation, a date should be specified for the next Sunset Review.

A copy of the preliminary report is given to the dean and director of the unit. Both are requested to review the report for accuracy and to reply verbally or to submit written comments to the chair of the review committee within five days. After comments have been received from the dean and director of the unit, the Sunset Review Committee prepares a report for mission to the provost and vice president for academic affairs.

The Sunset Review Committee submits a copy of the reports and responses prepared by the dean and the director of the unit, a copy of the report prepared by the Sunset Review Committee, and any other pertinent information to the provost and vice president for academic affairs.

7. The provost and vice president for academic affairs then distributes recommendations that will be forwarded to the president, to a meeting of the deans' and to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.

8. The provost and vice president for academic affairs submits final recommendations as well as a copy of the final report to the president.

9. The review process is completed when the president acts on the provost and vice president for academic affairs recommendations and acknowledges such actions in a letter to the provost and vice president for academic affairs, the dean, and the director of the unit.