DepartmentS & ProgramS
August 3, 2011 – The following rules and names are pending approval by the Executive Council, but they comprise the best working list of unit names at the university. The current list is missing many units of the Division of Academic Affairs, but a project is under way to add them.
Generally, use the following conventions for the full, formal names of university organizational units:
- Division of – reserved for units administered by a Vice President. For example, Division of Business Affairs
- Department of – reserved for academic units only. For example, Department of English.
- Program – for use in academic areas that are part of an academic unit, for example, Vocational Nursing Program, which is part of the Department of Nursing. It also is used in nonacademic areas that are part of a larger unit with approval of the Provost, for example, Upward Bound Program within the Division of Student Affairs. These areas may also follow state or national program names.
- Center – Specific units that may follow state or national program names, for example, Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Other exceptions may be approved by the Provost, for example, Academic Advising Center.
"Department of" and "Office of" should be used instead of "[Name] Department" or "[Name] Office," unless the unit name has used the latter style for an extended period of time and uses that name for marketing and promotions, where a change of name could confuse students and the public.