--- title: "Center and Institute Reviews" canonical: "https://facultystaff.clas.uconn.edu/space/CFSKB/28972154883/Center%20and%20Institute%20Reviews" format: markdown --- **Established:** February 3, 2022 **Revised:** March 18, 2025 --- Centers and Institutes are reviewed on a schedule required by the Board of Trustees. This typically occurs every five years and is accomplished through a self-study. The goal of the review is to provide the unit with an opportunity to articulate its progress toward existing goals and consider directions for the future, while affording the CLAS review committee the relevant information needed for assessment. ## Self-Study The self-study is a vital component of the assessment of the performance and vision of the center/institute. This review should focus on strengths, weaknesses, and strategies for change and/or improvements and enhancement of quality. The self-study document should contain the following information. - Overview: - Name of the center/institute. - Name of center/institute director, and if relevant, their faculty rank and departmental appointment. - Budget (include sources and amount of funds, including foundation and other accounts). - List of staff members and their responsibilities, include whether they are part-time or full-time with the center/institute. - Participating faculty (include name, rank, and departmental appointment. Please indicate faculty status whether a “core” or “affiliate” of the center/institute). - Center/Institute Mission and Goals: - Provide a brief overview of the center/institute mission and goals. If the mission has changed in the past 5 years, please explain how and why it has changed. - Indicate how the mission/goals are aligned with University and College goals and priorities. Describe the center/institute operations, including its academic programs (if relevant), composition and meetings of advisory boards, core and affiliated faculty engagement, and other activities. - Indicate how the center/institute impacts associated faculty and students. Delineate the metrics used by the center/institute to determine progress and success during the past 5 years (or since the last review if a different interval). - Interpret the defined metrics to assess the effectiveness of the center/institute in meeting its mission and goals. - Indicate how center/institute activities represent unique contributions independent of disciplinary or typical interdisciplinary activities performed by departments. - Scholarly productivity and broader impact (in the past five years or since last review): - Publications relevant to the mission of the unit: Please attach a bibliography of articles, books, and other relevant forms of publication, cited in a standard format used in your discipline. For each, identify whether they emanate from the teaching, research, and/or outreach mission of the center/institute. Do not include unpublished work or work in preparation. - Engaged scholarship: Provide information on projects involving community partners (industry, government, and non-profit). List names of partners. - Other creative contributions: Please include any patents received, exhibitions and performances, etc. If available, provide information on their impact. - Contributions to the university’s reputation: Please list any conferences/workshops hosted, keynote addresses delivered, invited presentations, and service on state or federal panels. For each of these, include responsibilities of the center/institute and number of attendees. - External funding: In a tabulated form, provide a listing of all external funding from state, federal, foundation, or other sources. Indicate the agency name, project title, duration, total funding, and direct cost (if different from total cost). Please indicate whether the grant was seeded by center/institute funds and/or activities, or seeded by funds from CLAS provided directly to the faculty, and whether the work will be conducted using center/institute resources. - Visiting scholars: Please provide a list of all visiting scholars and post-docs who worked at the center/institute, with the start and end dates of association with the center/institute. - Contributions to the State of Connecticut: list any specifics, including work with legislators or participation on State committees, contributions to State initiatives, or other interactions with broad-based state-wide organizations or initiatives. - Other: Report any other tangible evidence of scholarly productivity or broader impact that is not included above. - Strategic Analysis and Sustainability Plan for Upcoming Five-Year Period: - Describe the opportunities, challenges, and threats that the center/institute faces in the next five years and how they might influence the unit's future success. - Provide a list of the center/institute’s strategic goals for the next five years. - Delineate the metrics that will determine whether the goals have been accomplished. - Explain the center/institute’s specific objectives for each of these metrics. It is important to specify these objectives in terms of performance that would not have been attained if the unit did not exist. Another way to specify this is to consider the incremental contribution of the unit. For example, the scholars who comprise a center/institute will likely publish whether or not the center/institute exists, but some publications would not occur if the center/institute did not exist. Those publications should be the evidence of the objective. - Describe how the resources afforded by the College are necessary to meet the unit’s strategic goals. - Given limitations on physical space allocation, provide a space usage review, including an explanation of how the current space is utilized, and a space management plan. The self-study report should focus on activities over the past five years and should not exceed fifteen single-spaced pages in length. The report should not include any appendices with grant proposals, reprints of publications, letters of support, etc. ## Review Process The self-study report should be delivered electronically to [clas@uconn.edu](mailto:clas@uconn.edu), by the deadline provided by the College. The report will be reviewed by a committee of three to five faculty members appointed by the CLAS dean. Some of the committee members may be content experts and/or current or former directors of centers/institutes. The committee may elect to visit the center/institute to contextualize the above goals. It is essential to adhere to the agreed deadline so that the faculty review committee has adequate time to complete the report. Within a month of receipt of the report, the committee will prepare an analysis that will be provided to the Dean. The objective of the committee’s analysis is to assist center/institute faculty in charting future directions and identifying appropriate performance objectives. The analysis should conclude with a recommendation to the Dean for continuation, a determined probationary period, or the decommissioning of the center/institute. The committee’s analysis assists CLAS in advancing its missions in research, teaching, and outreach, and helps guide the allocation of limited resources. The Dean’s Office will request input from department heads as appropriate.