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Administered by the Blog Committee, Policy Matters posts are written by members on a variety of topics. From think pieces to how-to's, editorials to news round-ups, there is something for every policy administrator. Interested in contributing a post? Let us know by emailing admin@acupa.org.

 

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Top tags: policy  policy development  Policy Administration  Jessica Teets  policy process  collaboration  Deborah Bartlett  pandemic  accessibility  COVID-19  Jennifer Gallagher  Gina Kennedy  writing  ACUPA  data  equity  IT  Productivity  remote work  How-to  Lisa Biagas  news  resources  Sara Gigeroff  students  AI  change  compliance  culture  free speech 

Policy in the News

Posted By Jessica Teets CCEP, Purdue University, Monday, January 15, 2024
Updated: Thursday, January 11, 2024

Articles on Topics that May Affect Your Policies

To kick off 2024, the Blog Committee shares some of the articles they have been reading related to policy administration in higher education.

Academic Integrity

A Brief Guide to How Colleges Adjudicate Plagiarism Cases
By Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 3, 2024

Administration

3 policy developments college leaders should keep an eye on this year
By Natalie Schwarz, Higher Ed Dive, January 10, 2024

Biden admin dives into next round of higher education regulations
By Michael Stratford, Politico Weekly Education Newsletter, January 8, 2024

Education Dept. Outlines Possible Changes in Accreditation, Distance Education, Other Rules
By Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, January 3, 2024

AI

Creating an AI Policy for Your Marketing Communications Team
By Georgy Cohen, Inside Higher Ed, January 9, 2024

How Will Copyright Law and Plagiarism Change in the Age of GenAI?
By Dan Lohrmann, Government Technology, January 8, 2024

Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

After Months of Political Pressure and a Failed Vote, Wisconsin’s Regents Approve Deal on DEI
By Erin Gretzinger, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 14, 2023

Better integration policies for international students needed at universities
By Benjamin Maiangwa, University Affairs, October 10, 2023

Judge suspends adoption of pro-Palestinian policy by McGill student union
By Jesse Feith, The Montreal Gazette, November 22, 2023

University of Rochester Creates New Digital Accessibility Policy
By news staff of Government Technology, January 5, 2024

University principal slams Quebec’s proposed French language policy
By Isaac Lamoureux, True North, December 24, 2023

UPEI releases 5-year plan for fixing problems highlighted in scathing review
By Carolyn Ryan, CBC, January 3, 2024

Will New House Bill Help Pregnant Students?
By Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, January 9, 2024

Free Speech

Can a simple procedural reform fix universities’ speech policies?
By John Hasnas, The Hill, December 29, 2023

Institutional neutrality policy adopted at Laurentian University
By Heidi Ulrichsen, Sudbury.com, December 31, 2023

The Ford government is ignoring its own campus free speech policy
By Creso S
á, University Affairs, November 28, 2023

Human Resources

DOL independent contractor final rule announced, will take effect March 11
By Ryan Golden, Higher Ed Dive, January 10, 2024

Illinois becomes third state to enact paid time off for all workers
By Lauren Warnecke, WGLT.org, January 4, 2024

These universities have embraced remote work—and they’re seeing some big wins
By Alcino Donadel, University Business, October 10, 2023

Tags:  AI  equity  free speech  HR  Jessica Teets  laws  regulations 

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5 Years of Policy Matters Posts!

Posted By Sara Gigeroff, University of New Brunswick, Monday, July 10, 2023
Updated: Sunday, July 9, 2023

A Compilation of Contributions

ACUPA’s Blog Committee would like to take this opportunity to reintroduce members to our blog, Policy Matters ! Policy Matters launched in 2018 taking the place of ACUPAexchange , a triannual newsletter publication. The original purpose of the blog was to address the needs of our members and maximize the efficiency of our processes. To highlight the efforts of current and past Blog Committee members, as well as volunteer contributors, all posts published since the inception of the blog have been organized alphabetically into categories based on theme and are linked below for easy access.

 

ACUPA (General)

ACUPA Blog Committee Welcomes Policy Experts

ACUPA Website Features

Welcome to the New Blog!

Accessibility

Are Your Policies Accessible? Part 1: An Introduction to Web Accessibility

Are Your Policies Accessible? Part 2: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Are Your Policies Accessible? Part 3: Automating Accessibility in Custom Word Templates

Are Your Policies Fully Available to Your Stakeholders?

Hybrid/Remote Work

Adapt to an Online Environment to Develop Policies

And Now We Zoom...

Hybrid Work Schedules

Pivot to a Remote Work Environment

Pandemic and Policy

A Sea of Change and a Pandemic

Campus Changes in Light of the Coronavirus

Moving toward a New Normal

Policy Changes on Steroids and I'm Over It

Policy Matters Open Forum Covid

To Vax, or not to Vax

Policy in the News

Policy in the News (2023)

Policy in the News (2022)

Policy in the News (2021)

Policy in the News (2020)

Policy in the News (2019)

The Policy Process

Always Getting Better

Benchmarking Policies

Choose Your Words Carefully

Do I Really Need a Policy and Procedure?

Do You Cite References in Policy?

Do you evaluate your policy objectives?

Expediting Policies to Address Organizational Risks

Inclusive Policy Development

Increase Awareness of and Participation in Policy Development

Let's Talk About Procedures!

Organizing a Policy Catalog

Our Language Matters

Policies as More than Rules

Policy Development – Are Templates Required?

Policies Requiring Public Review and Comment

Project Management

The First Element

What Is a Policy?

When Your Steering Committee Fails to Steer

Where Does Your Policy Function Belong?

Where have all the Policies Gone? Part I

Where have all the Policies Gone? Part II

Roles and Responsibilities of Policy Professionals

Beyond the Policy Administrators Role

Defining Career Success

Other Duties as Assigned

So, What Do You Do?

What it Takes to be an Effective Policy Administrator

What’s In Your Policy Closet?

Software, Programs, and Digitization

Behind the Scenes of Policy Data

Customize Your Microsoft Word Experience (I)

Customize Your Microsoft Word Experience (II)

Easily Convert Web Pages to PDF Format

In Search of Innovation

Policy Administration for the Digital Age

Version Control, Auto Saving, and Collaborative Editing

Title IX

Historical View of Title IX

Title IX Officers are the People Who Stay Awake at Night

Miscellaneous

Bereavement Leave

Betting on College Sports

Equity Review at Georgia Gwinnett College

Is Technology Dictating Policy?

Is Your Institution Ready for the Robot Invasion?

Learning and Love

"Operation Varsity Blues": High Stakes Testing in College Admissions

Policy and Political Activism

Protecting Essential Records -- Key to Surviving a Catastrophe

Reducing Risks to Institutional Data

Student Interns as Valued Employees

The Joining of Two Community Colleges

The Power of P3s

The Robots are Coming

The Violence of the Last Six Months

Thoughts on Retirement

Values in Action


As was stated in
the inaugural blog post, we continue to appeal to you, our members, to help us evolve and decide whether the information shared in the featured posts are relevant and interesting. Do you have an idea for a blog post? Ultimately, this blog is for you, our members, and your submissions are encouraged and welcomed! If you are interested in contributing as a guest (maybe you are interested in being interviewed to share your own experiences as a policy professional), becoming a member of the Blog Committee, or want to share an idea for a topic to be explored through a post, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Tags:  accessibility  ACUPA  Data  developing policies  diversity  equity  guidelines  Hybrid  Microsoft  News  Pandemic  PDF  policies  policies and procedures  policy  policy design  policy development  policy/procedures  Programs  Remote  resources  Responsibilities  Roles  Sara Gigeroff  Software  Word 

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Are Your Policies Fully Available to Your Stakeholders?

Posted By Deborah Bartlett, Washington State University, Monday, June 12, 2023
Updated: Friday, June 9, 2023

Making Your Policies Accessible to All Audiences

Most institutions are now aware of the need for recognizing and respecting the differences among the members of our stakeholder communities. As policy administrators, many of us are building equity review into our policy development processes.

Most of us now publish our institutions' policies online and share our policy drafts electronically, rather than in paper policy manuals or through paper documents. Just as it's important to consider adding equity review to the development of policies, it's also important that we consider how to prepare the content for distribution in ways that make it accessible to a wide range of people, including those who use assistive devices.

Here are some considerations for your institutions, all of which we’ve put in place here at Washington State University (WSU):

At WSU, our Web Communications unit handles web accessibility problems and our institution's ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) coordinator is responsible for managing access complaints and grievances.

Creating Accessible Word and PDF Documents

Most of us use Word to create our source documents and either Word or PDF for drafts and creating web versions of our policies. Taking in consideration of assistive devices, here's some key components for making Word and PDF documents accessible to all:

  • Headings:
    • Headings create a hierarchy in the document that a screen reader can follow.
  • Document Title, Description, and Tags:
    • A default document title is necessary for a screen reader to be able to scan and read out loud to its user.
    • A document description gives screen reader users a brief summary of the document they are about to read.
    • Document tags allow a screen reader to know if they are looking at an image, a paragraph, a heading, etc.
  • Hyperlinks:
    • Hyperlinks need to have clearly defined labels of the destination of each link so that a screen reader is able to read them out loud when scanning the document.
    • It's preferable to embed link URLs (attach the URL in the background to a word or phrase using the Link function), also known as contextual links, rather than writing out URLs in the document.
  • Tables:
    • Clear table structures and headers are necessary for a screen reader to be able to scan the document.
  • Alt Text:
    • Alt Text data allows a screen reader to scan a description of tables, figures, or images that may be on the document.
  • Lists:
    • The built in formatting tools of Word make it easier for the screen reader to scan the document.
  • Capitalized Words:
    • Use bold for emphasis and avoiding capitalization of words.
    • Assistive devices may provide capitalized words to users by reading each individual letter, instead of complete words.
  • Tab/Reading Order
    • For PDFs, identifying the reading order of a document’s text helps a screen reader present the text as it is meant to be read, rather than just as random blocks of text.

Creating Fully Functional PDFs from Word

With the latest versions of Word in Office365, all accessibility functionality in a Word source document may be directly transferred to a PDF version:

  • Select File->Save As
  • Change the file type (suffix) from the default Word Document (.docx) to PDF (.pdf).
    A PDF file created in this way includes all of your active hyperlinks and other functionality.

Creating Accessible Documents from Scanned Images

In order to make scanned document images accessible to a screen reader user, a few things need to be done, otherwise none of the information on the document can be read by a screen reader:

  • Make or convert the scanned image to PDF
  • Under Tools (in Adobe Acrobat Pro):
    • Select Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
    • Select Text Recognition and In This File, and
    • Select the pages to be included
  • Under Tools:
    • Select Action Wizard, then
    • Select Make Accessible
    • Select Find Recognize Text Using OCR
  • In the Recognize Text -- General Settings window:
    • Select the applicable language and
    • Select Searchable as the PDF Output Style
  • Select OK

Accessibility Guides

The process of increasing equity in our policies and policy access is ongoing. Here are some accessibility guides to provide you with further ideas as you get started:

Tags:  access  accessibility  accessible documents  ACUPA  assistive devices  Deborah Bartlett  developing policies  equity  guidelines  PDF  policies  policies and procedures  policy  policy design  policy development  policy/procedures  recommendations  resources  Word 

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Policy in the News

Posted By Sara Gigeroff, University of New Brunswick, Monday, April 10, 2023
Updated: Thursday, April 6, 2023

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

Tags:  acceptable use  administration  AI  articles  Canada  ChatGPT  compliance  data security  diversity  EDI  equity  Florida  free speech  health  inclusion  IT  leave  news  parental leave  policy  policy administration  policy development  policy process  recruitment  Sara Gigeroff  tenure  Texas  wellness  West Virginia  work-life balance 

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Our Language Matters

Posted By Deborah Bartlett, Washington State University, Monday, March 15, 2021

Considering the Words We Use

An important aspect of policy writing and editing is wordsmithing, i.e., making changes to improve the clarity and style, as opposed to content. The language choices we make can affect a reader's impression of our organization and affect their emotional, as well as intellectual, ability to "hear" the information we're trying to convey.

The words we choose may change over time, as our understanding and appreciation of the impact of our language changes. As my administrative policy office approaches writing and editing new policies and/or updating existing policies, we try to use "new eyes" to view and plan for changes to the words we include, as well as the content we're asked to communicate.

While the wording in an existing or new policy may have been through a number of iterations and appear to still be applicable or agreed upon, it can be useful for policy administrators to review the language for possible updates. Here are some choices to consider:

Inclusive language -- Use inclusive language, replacing oppressive terms with terms that support persons and reduce bias. Inclusive word choices reflect awareness of and respect for the differences inherent in all individuals. Approaching language from a perspective of kindness and respect makes it easier for our audiences to feel safe and more open to accepting the content. It's important to remember that understanding is a function of the heart, as well as the mind.

Plain talk – Plain talk allows readers to find what they need, understand what they find, and be able to use what they find to meet their needs. Even if not mandated for your institution, as it is for federal agencies and Washington state agencies, following plain talk guidelines can greatly increase the usability of your policies and procedures.

Jargon -- Avoid jargon (special words or expressions used by a particular profession or group that are difficult for others to understand), when possible. Define the words when jargon terms must be used. When writing for institution-wide audiences, it's advisable to write your policies and procedures to be read and understood by non-subject matter experts.

Positive vs. negative -- Make positive statements, rather than negative statements, whenever possible. Positive phrasing is easier to understand than negative. And a positive tone affects how readers react to the writing, even just subconsciously.

Useful References

Here are some related references you may find useful:

Tags:  anti-racism  bias  Deborah Bartlett  emotional  equity  inclusive  jargon  language  oppressive  plain talk  respect  wording  words  wordsmithing 

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Pivot to a Remote Work Environment

Posted By Megan Jones, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Friday, February 19, 2021

Considerations for remote and flexible work policies

Many organizations are pivoting to an online or hybrid work environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To adapt, some organizations are developing policies on remote work and flexible schedules.

When developing policies related to remote work, consider impacts on:

  • Access to vaccine for those unable to work remotely
  • Accessibility of faculty and staff to students
  • Connectivity and IT support
  • Employee wellness and staying emotionally connected virtually
  • Equipment purchasing and lending for remote work
  • Equity of individuals allowed to work remotely (front desk staff, senior leadership, etc.)
  • Facility and space usage and planning
  • Information and records security and privacy
  • Performance, conduct and time management
  • Workers compensation coverage
  • Working out-of-state or out-of-country (tax implications and privacy laws)

Resources

The following articles, while not specifically about higher education, provide useful policy guidelines for our organizations:

For Future Thought

  • How has your organization responded to the need for policies on remote work and flexible schedules?
  • What should other organizations consider when developing remote work policies and procedures?
  • How has your experience been working remotely or on-campus during the pandemic?

Tags:  accessibility  connectivity  COVID19  emotional wellness  equity  flexible schedule  information security  IT  Megan Jones  pandemic  privacy  remote work  taxes  time management 

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