Articles on Topics that May Affect Your Policies

Due to the popularity of our previous Policy in the News post, the Blog Committee wanted to take this opportunity to share recent policy-related higher education articles ahead of the ACUPA Annual Conference.

Administration

Guidance for an Often Thankless Task: Revising the Faculty Handbook
By Laura L. Behling, Inside Higher Ed, April 4, 2023

AI in Academia

AI Tools Don’t Have to be the Enemy of Teaching and Learning
By Gavan P.L. Watson & Sarah Elaine Eaton, University Affairs, February 17, 2023

Canadian Universities Crafting ChatGPT Policies as French School Bans AI Program
By Aaron D’Andrea, Global News, February 1, 2023

Campus Safety

West Virginia Governor Signs Campus Carry Gun Bill
By John Raby, AP News, March 1, 2023

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion

Free Speech vs. Hate Speech
By Safia Abdulahi, Inside Higher Ed, April 4, 2023

Harvard Grad Union Members Mixed on New University-Wide Policies on Bullying and Discrimination
By Julia A. Maciejak, The Harvard Crimson, April 5, 2023

How EDI Policies are Failing International Students
By Karine Coen-Sanchez, University Affairs, January 24, 2023

The Ohio Education Bill that Stands Against Diversity Training—and China
By Alcino Donadel, University Business, March 15, 2023

Health and Wellness

New ‘Disconnecting from Work’ Policies Aren’t Enough to Tackle the Problem of Work-life Balance
By Michael Rancic, University Affairs, August 8, 2023

What Higher Ed's Paid Parental-Leave Policies Look Like
By Megan Zahneis, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 28, 2023

Yale University’s New Mental Health Policy Raises Discussions Among BW Communities
By Madeline Dwyer, The Exponent, March 23, 2023

Information Technology

Education Espionage: FSA “Secret Shoppers” to Monitor Higher Ed for Unethical Practices
By Alcino Donadel, University Business, March 15, 2023

How IT Departments Can Shape Acceptable Use Policies in Higher Ed
By Alexandra Shimalla, EdTech: Focus on Higher Education, March 29, 2023

U.S. Department of Education Announces Updated Data Security Expectation for Postsecondary Institutions
By Sarah Pheasant, Jonathan Tarnow (Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP), J.D. Supra, March 31, 2023

Tenure and Recruitment

Florida University System Approves New Tenure Policy, Spurning Faculty Critics
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Higher Ed Dive, March 30, 2023

Texas Senate’s Priority Bills on Higher Ed Would End Tenure, Diversity Policies
By Kate McGee, The Texas Tribune, March 10, 2023

Framework Recommendations Instead of Templates

In conversations and webinars with other policy administrators, the debate about whether or not to use templates for writing and developing policies continually comes up. A number of institutions mandate the use of one or more templates for their users who want to develop policy and/or procedures documents.

I've worked for the past 25 years in the administrative policies office for Washington State University. We've chosen not to use a template for developing the administrative policies and/or procedures our office publishes. We do have a style guide, but it’s mostly involved with formatting and layout so that sections and policies have a uniform “look.” Our choice has predominantly been based on the idea of providing flexibility to our subject expert departments as they update or add new sections to our long-established administrative policy manuals.

In accordance with WSU's executive Policy on Policies (EP5), departments may begin development of their administrative policy/procedure rough drafts prior to bringing my office into the process or may request our assistance with developing the drafts from the beginning. As subject expert administrators get started, we do occasionally get requests for policy framework guidance from those who are new to policy writing and development.

Here’s a general outline that my office recommends for writing a new policy or policy/procedure section for placement in one of our administrative manuals:

• Overview and/or Policy Statement
  
  It’s sometimes useful to have both. If a section is especially long, placing a set of links to subsections in the document in the overview can be useful. For examples, see the beginnings of WSU's policy sections EP8 and EP38.
  
  In a section that's predominantly procedural, an overview might be more appropriate as a place to provide a summary of or references to the applicable policy.
  
  
• Purpose
  
  A purpose statement provides a brief description of the purpose of the policy and/or activity. In some cases, a purpose statement is provided in an overview or policy statement.
  
  
• Scope
  
  A scope statement describes the limitations or boundaries of the policy/procedure. Some writers choose to combine scope statements/subsections in either an overview or policy statement or within an applicability statement.
  
  
• Applicability
  
  An applicability statement or subsection describes the members of the institution's community (internal and/or external) directly impacted by the policy and/or expected to follow the policy/procedures.
  
  
• Roles and Responsibilities
  
  Roles and responsibilities statements provide a summary of the actions and/expectations each employee or role category is expected to fulfill with relation to the policy/procedures.
  
  
• Requirements
  
  Policy requirements are provided in this subsection. If procedures are included, any required procedural steps would be provided in the order the actions are to occur.
  
  
• Procedures (if applicable)
  
  Some institutions choose to keep policies and procedures separate. At WSU, we have quite a number of combined policy and procedures sections in our administrative manuals. For the most part, we recommend publishing procedures and policy/procedures within our business and safety manuals. However, we do have a small number of executive policies in which the executive administrators insisted upon including both policies and procedures.
  
  
• Definitions
  
  We recommend providing definitions applicable to the policy/procedures in their own subsection, especially if terms are used that are specific to a subject and/or include jargon. If there are only one or two terms that need to be defined, the definitions may be included directly with the reference.
  
  If this subsection is short, it might be placed after the applicability statement. However, if the definitions list is longer than a page, we often recommend placing the subsection at or near the end and providing an internal document link and/or reference, if needed, earlier in the policy.
  
  
• Additional Resources
  An additional resources subsection provides descriptions or lists and references (e.g., website URLs) including, but not limited to, supporting department contacts, state and federal agencies' websites, other supporting or related institutional policies and procedures.

Every policy office and institution handles their policy development process differently, and there's really no right or wrong answer. Does your institution mandate policy/procedure templates? Or make framework recommendations? Things to consider for both you and your users…

NOTE: ACUPA members have access to a number of resources, including templates, samples, and other tools that you may find useful in writing and developing your policies and procedures. To access the Templates and Tools under the Resources tab, sign in as a member.

How Centralized Policies Affect Productivity

I work at a community college that, like many of its peer institutions, is experiencing declining funding and, at the same time, escalating regulatory mandates. I recently had the opportunity to speak with our executive director of diversity and equity, Affirmative Action/Title IX officer about her challenges with regulatory requirements and how the establishment of a policy office and a centralized policy library aided her productivity.

Like many of us on campus, the executive director wears many hats, with the assistance of one shared staff member. Here at the college, she administers all programs related to diversity, equity, Affirmative Action, and Title IX, and is responsible for the review and investigation of complaints regarding discrimination, sexual harassment, dating and domestic violence, stalking, Title IX, and workplace issues. During our talk, the executive director noted that budgetary constraints and Title IX were her current challenges. Nearly half of her allotted budget, despite collaboration with other departments to share costs, goes toward campus-wide mandated training initiatives; in her opinion, considering today’s social environment, more training is needed above and beyond the required levels. In addition, a big chunk of her time is spent staying current on national news and the changing federal policy environment. Continual monitoring is necessary to remain ahead of the curve in managing risk, where missteps could be financially catastrophic to a small public institution. As an example, the executive director mentioned that what has been keeping her awake at night is a Proposed Title IX Regulation, released on November 16 for 60 days of public comment. This proposal came after the Department of Education’s decision in September 2017 to rescind prior guidance from 2011 and 2014, leaving in place the 2001 Guidance. These changes have left the college’s published policy in limbo for now, but it will require considerable revision in the not-too-distant future. It is still too early to do a deep dive into the work of revision and procedural considerations until the proposed regulation is finalized.  

Over my college’s 50-plus-year history, published policy has been a hit-or-miss affair, and what policy existed was more likely to be held in a multitude of forms scattered across departments. Since the 2013 creation of the college’s centralized policy office and policy library, the executive director claims to have experienced an increase in her office’s productivity. As she mentioned many times during our conversation, policy in her wheelhouse is always changing, which requires timely updates. She indicated that the services the policy office offers save her time by providing best-practice research, help with writing and editing during the development or revision stage, and shepherding the policy draft through review/approval processes; this allows her more time for implementing budget-friendly staff training and professional development strategies.