Development, Revision, and Management of University Policy

Purpose: Policies are critical to maintaining an environment that fosters excellence, integrity, and accountability. Pittsburg State University shall ensure that all university policies are developed, disseminated, and managed in a manner that is compliant and consistent with legal and regulatory requirements and align with the university’s mission. Policies promote operational efficiency and mitigate and manage institutional risk. All policies reside in the Policy Library.

Applies to: All units that develop and disseminate policies at Pittsburg State University.

Policy:

Pittsburg State University policies and procedures must effectively and efficiently guide current activities and actions of faculty, staff, students, and administration. The university values shared governance to identify the need for changes to current policies and procedures in order to reflect the shared values of the university and comply with the laws, statutes, directives, and policies governing the university.

The Kansas Board of Regents holds the University President responsible and accountable for all operations of the university. The University President has ultimate authority over all policies and procedures. 

A. University Partners’ Process to Recommend University-wide Policy Development

The University President has the responsibility to review and approve all changes to policies and procedures. University Partners may recommend policy and procedure development or revision in the following manner:

1. University Administration. Administration will submit policy proposals for review and feedback to the President’s Cabinet and to Faculty Senate, Graduate Council, KNEA, USS, or Student Government Association when members of those bodies would be impacted by the proposed policies.
2. Faculty Senate. When Faculty Senate approves a policy proposal, the recommendation will be submitted to the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs (or designee) who will acknowledge receipt of the recommendation within ten (10) calendar days. Faculty Senate will send a copy of the proposal to General Counsel. The Vice President will review the recommendation within thirty (30) calendar days and inform the Faculty Senate of the outcome. The Vice President may request thirty (30) calendar day extensions to allow for additional review time, but must notify the Faculty Senate of the extension until a final determination is made by the Vice President.
3. Graduate Council. When Graduate Council approves a policy proposal, the recommendation will be submitted to the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs (or designee) who will acknowledge receipt of the recommendation within ten (10) calendar days. Graduate Council will send a copy of the proposal to General Counsel. The Vice President will review the recommendation within thirty (30) calendar days and inform the Graduate Counsel of the outcome. The Vice President may request thirty (30) calendar day extensions to allow for additional review time, but must notify the Graduate Council of the extension until a final determination is made by the Vice President.
4. Kansas National Education Association, Pittsburg State University Chapter (KNEA). When KNEA approves a policy proposal, the recommendation will be submitted to the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs (or designee) who will acknowledge receipt of the recommendation within ten (10) calendar days. KNEA will send a copy of the proposal to General Counsel. The Vice President will review the recommendation within thirty (30) calendar days and inform KNEA of the outcome.  The Vice President may request thirty (30) calendar day extensions to allow for additional review time, but must notify the KNEA of the extension until a final determination is made by the Vice President.
5. University Staff Senate (USS). When USS approves a policy proposal, the recommendation will be submitted to the Vice President of Business, Finance, and Facilities (or designee) who will acknowledge receipt of the recommendation within ten (10) calendar days. USS will send a copy of the proposal to General Counsel. The Vice President will review the recommendation within thirty (30) calendar days and inform USS of the outcome. The Vice President may request thirty (30) calendar day extensions to allow for additional review time, but must notify the USS of the extension until a final determination is made by the Vice President.
6. Student Government Association (SGA).  When SGA approves a policy proposal, the proposal will be submitted to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management (or designee) who will acknowledge receipt of the recommendation within ten (10) calendar days. The Vice President will review the recommendation within thirty (30) calendar days and inform the SGA of the outcome.  The Vice President may request thirty (30) calendar day extensions to allow for additional review time, but must notify the SGA of the extension until a final determination is made by the Vice President.

B. Policy Review Process for University-wide Policies

1. Administration or Vice President’s submitting a University Partner’s proposal must ensure the following:
   1. Recommended changes are in accordance with federal and state laws and policies governing the university. Review may require that the recommendation be vetted by other university offices (Human Resources, Purchasing, Registrar, Institutional Equity, etc.) or outside resources (KBOR, Department of Education, etc.);
   2. The proposal complies with the university’s mission, vision, goals, and strategic plan; and
   3. The proposal provides university staff, faculty, students, and administration with clear and consistent guidelines to promote fairness and reduce ambiguity in how tasks are to be performed across the university.
2. When a proposed policy meets the above criteria, the proposed policy will be placed on the President’s Cabinet agenda for review, edits, requests for additional information, and/or recommended submission to the University President for final determination of approval or non-approval of a proposed policy.
3. Review by President’s Cabinet should be completed within thirty (30) calendar days with recommendation to the University President for approval or non-approval. Additional time may be needed for lengthy policies, new policies, critical impact policies, scheduling conflicts, etc. The President’s Cabinet will work to diligently complete necessary review of submitted policies.
4. The University President’s final decision will be disseminated to all President Cabinet members. The applicable Vice President will notify any University Partners that initiated the policy proposal of the final determination.
5. Policies approved will be returned to the General Counsel for submission to the Policy Administrator.

C. Unit-specific Policy

1. Unit-specific policies are subordinate to university-wide policies.
2. The Vice President will determine the review process for unit-specific policies.
3. The Vice President may approve, revise, or deny a unit-specific policy.

D. Policy Format for University-wide Policy and Unit-specific Policy

In order to preserve a standard format for policy dissemination, policy proposals shall include the specific headings and information within the university policy. The standard format is located under the Compliance Office.

University offices wishing to include university policies on their webpage must do so by linking the Policy Library to ensure the official version is referenced.

E. Policy Administrator for University-wide Policy and Unit-specific Policy

The University President will designate a Policy Administrator to facilitate and oversee the management process and ensure access to all university policies through the Policy Library.

1. University-wide polices and unit-specific policies will be submitted to the Policy Administrator.
2. Approved policies will be promptly posted in electronic format. Clerical or non-substantive revisions to a policy may be approved by the applicable Vice President and Policy Administrator.
3. Rescinded or revised policies will be archived and removed from the Policy Library. With exception, revised policies for non-substantive changes, such as an office name change or title change, will be documented under the policies “Change History” section, but the policy will not be archived. These non-substantive changes may be approved by the applicable Vice President and Policy Administrator. The archival of policies will be maintained in accordance with the State of Kansas policy on Records Retention.
4. The Policy Administrator is available to assist with identifying appropriate groups or contacts to be consulted during the development, revision, or rescission of policy.

F. Policy Rescission

Policies may be rescinded for several reasons, including but not limited to:

1. Changes in federal, state, regulatory, or local legislation;
2. Changes in university operations; or
3. Consolidation of policies, guidelines, or procedures.

The request to rescind a policy should follow the same process as the requests to create or modify a policy.  If the proposal to rescind a policy is approved by the University President, the approval will be provided to General Counsel to be forwarded to the Policy Administrator.

G. Policy Dissemination of University-wide Policies and Unit-specific Policies

All university-wide policies and unit-specific policies must be published in the Policy Library. The Policy Administrator will be responsible for positing policies in the Policy Library.

After a university-wide policy is posted in the Policy Library, the Creative and Strategic Communications Office will disseminate notification of the approved policy to employees and/or students.

All units seeking to include a university-wide policy or unit-specific policy on a webpage must do so by linking to the Policy Library to ensure the official version is referenced. Disseminating printed versions of policies is disfavored because policies are often updated, leading to potential inconsistency between print versions and the most current approved version published in the Policy Library.

H. Policy Review Cycle for University-wide Policies

1. The Contact(s) listed within a policy are responsible for initiating review of a policy.
2. Each year, by March 15th, the Policy Administrator will submit to General Counsel a list of policies with review cycles ending in the current year.
3. Each year, by March 15th, based on whether a policy review cycle is ending, the Policy Administrator will submit to each Contact listed within policy that it is time for review of the policy.
4. The Contact must reach out to applicable offices for review and submission of any necessary revisions to the policy.
5. On or before May 15th, the Contact will state there are no revisions or submit any revisions in a Word document using track changes to their applicable Vice President with a copy of those revisions to the Policy Administrator and General Counsel.
6. The Vice President after consult with the Contact will follow the Policy Review Process above.

EXCLUSIONS AND SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Policy Review Waived. The University President has sole discretion to forgo the Policy Review Process when the university needs to be in immediate compliance with federal or state laws, Kansas Board of Regents policies, judicial rulings, financial instability, critical operational changes, and/or audit compliance.  This is not an all-encompassing list of potential reasons for the need to waive the Policy Review Process.

Conflicting Policy. Policies of subordinate bodies must not be inconsistent with, or less restrictive than, the policies developed by higher bodies.