A. REASON FOR POLICY

The purpose of this Policy is to ensure consistent approval, implementation, review, amendments, and maintenance of official University Policies. This standardization process ensures the policies are accessible, legally sound, clearly distinguished from department procedure, and approved through an efficient, centralized governance process.

B. DEFINITIONS

Departmental Procedures – Departmental procedures are written processes that apply to the operation of an individual department or specific units within the university, including program student handbooks. Procedures supplement University policies but do not have campus-wide authority and must not conflict with University policy.

Edits – Edits are stylistic, formatting, or minor procedural changes, corrections of error, and/or procedural or exhibit modifications. Edits do not require formal governance review and may be updated directly through coordination with the VPLA Office.

Policy Library – The online repository of all officially approved and recognized University Policies.

Revision – Revisions are substantial content changes to an existing policy, which must proceed through the standard review and approval phases.

University Policy – A written statement with broad application throughout the university or significant institutional impact. University Policies are developed to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, promote operational efficiencies, uphold the university's mission, and reduce institutional risk.

C. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Office of the VPLA: Serves as the institutional framework owner, compliance gatekeeper, and central coordinating clearinghouse for all university-level policies.

Divisional Ownership & Maintenance: While the Office of the VPLA manages the institutional policy pipeline and framework, individual University Departments and Offices in partnership with their designated Responsible Vice President retain continuous operational ownership of their respective policies. It is the sole responsibility of each department and division to monitor regulatory updates, maintain operational accuracy, ensure staff adherence, and promptly initiate revisions when internal workflows or external legal mandates change.

D. PROCEDURES

The policy pipeline is consolidated into three (3) mandatory, centralized phases managed by the Office of the VPLA.

I. Intake and Triage

1. Drafting: The Policy Owner identifies an institutional need or required revision and drafts the policy using the standard University Policy Template.
2. Central Submission: The Policy Owner submits the completed draft directly to the Office of the VPLA.
3. Triage: The VPLA conducts an initial gatekeeping review to ensure the draft does not conflict with University Bylaws, identifies overlapping policies, and confirms institutional necessity.

II. Coordinated Parallel Review & Governance Vetting: Rather than requiring sequential departmental sign-offs, the VPLA acts as the clearinghouse to coordinate simultaneous reviews and governance sequencing:

1. Risk & Legal Alignment: The VPLA routes the draft internally to assess legal risk, regulatory compliance, and alignment with safety standards.
2. Divisional Impact Review: Concurrently, the VPLA distributes the draft to the Vice Presidents and administrators of all departments or divisions directly impacted by the policy's execution.
3. Committee Consultation: If applicable, the draft will be sent to the Faculty Committee and Staff Committee for specialized constituent feedback.
4. Broader Campus Public Posting: The VPLA shall post the draft policy to a centralized digital university platform for a fourteen (14) calendar day public comment period, allowing the broader campus community to review and submit operational feedback. The review period shall automatically pause or be extended during scheduled academic breaks (e.g., Thanksgiving, Winter Break, Spring Break) and official university closures.
5. Time-Bound Feedback Window: Impacted stakeholders, divisional leaders, consulted committees, and campus community members are bound by the concurrent fourteen (14) calendar day window to submit material operational feedback to the VPLA. Silence or a lack of response at the expiration of this window is deemed an endorsement to proceed.
6. XUC Vetting: Following initial feedback reconciliation, the VPLA routes the adjusted draft to XUC for formal operational review and institutional alignment feedback.

B. Emergency Exceptions - Interim Policies

When necessary to immediately comply with shifting local, state, or federal laws, or to address an urgent university necessity (such as an immediate threat to institutional safety, health, or financial security), the VPLA may bypass the standard phased pipeline. In such cases, the VPLA is authorized to fast-track interim policy approvals directly through the University President or Executive Cabinet. Interim policies enacted via this emergency provision will take effect immediately and remain active while standard governance review is retroactively completed.

III. Execution Approval and Activation

1. Executive Cabinet Advancement: Following XUC review, the VPLA certifies the policy as vetted and operationally reviewed, advancing the finalized draft and an executive summary to the Executive Cabinet for review and approval.
2. Execution Authorization: A policy is officially approved and active upon the final signature of the University President (or the Board of Trustees, where explicitly reserved by University Bylaws).
3. Library Publication: The Office of the VPLA uploads the finalized, approved document directly to the digital online Policy Library.

E. POLICY AUDIT, REVIEW, AND WITHDRAWAL

I. Annual Policy Audit

The Office of the VPLA, in coordination with the designated Internal Auditor (whether internal personnel or an external co-sourced provider), shall conduct an annual Policy Audit at the conclusion of each fiscal year. This audit will assess institutional policy health by identifying expired or outdated directives, cross-referencing regulatory gaps, and ensuring all active policies reside accurately within the digital Policy Library.

II. Compliance and Ethics Council

The Compliance and Ethics Council shall serve as the primary institutional advisory body for policy governance. The VPLA will present the findings and strategic recommendations of the Annual Policy Audit to the Council during its initial meeting of the academic year.

Additionally, the VPLA may route highly complex, multi-divisional, or high-significance policy drafts to the Compliance and Ethics Council during the Review phase to secure comprehensive compliance and ethical risk evaluations prior to executive advancement.

III. Policy Withdrawal

When a policy becomes obsolete, the Responsible Executive or Policy Owner submits a withdrawal request to the VPLA. The VPLA will coordinate a brief review with impacted divisions and XUC to confirm the policy is appropriate for elimination across the university before advancing it to the Cabinet and President for final decommissioning authority.

F. EXHIBITS

Exhibits are a useful tool for providing the Policy’s supporting documents, which might include, but is not limited to templates and procedures. Exhibits may be modified as needed by the Responsible Executive to the Policy.

For the Policy of Policies, the Exhibits are:

• Policy Template
• Policy Approval Form

G. HISTORY

The History section should explain the policy history. Some examples include: Newly Approved; Reviewed without Significant Changes; Amended and Approved; and Revoked and Replaced. Each entry in the History section should be followed by the date of the action.

For the Policy on Policies, the History is:
Newly Approved May 25, 2023; previously existed as a Policy Manual.

Amended and Restructured: July 2026 (Centralized under the Office of the VPLA; modernized workflow to parallel review tracks inclusive of Faculty/Staff committees; updated governance sequencing through XUC and Cabinet; integrated Compliance and Ethics Council annual audit protocols).

H. POLICY REVIEW SCHEDULE

The Policy Review Schedule shall include the next review date.

Next Review: Academic Year 2028