Policy Development

1. The university policy process is well-defined, understandable, and transparent.
2. University community input and feedback are broadly sought, valued, and appropriately used.
3. Policy ownership lies with the responsible office/executive.
4. Policy owners are responsible for reviewing, updating, and retiring policies as needed. At a minimum, policy owners should review their policies every five years.
5. Leaders, supervisors, managers, and individuals are responsible for understanding, implementing, and enforcing university policies, university rules, and unit governing documents.

Issues can arise as a result of federal, state, or local legislation or regulation; incidents or trends that emerge within or outside of the university; a shift in university priorities; concerns raised by the university community; or a host of other reasons.

Such issues should only be addressed through the university policy process if the resulting policy would accomplish all of the following:

1. Support the university’s vision, mission, and shared values
2. Apply across the institution
3. Establish the university’s position across a range of matters
4. Endure across time and administrations, change infrequently, and set the course for the foreseeable future
5. Support equity, integrity, and simplicity in practices across the institution
6. Promote quality and operational efficiency, reduce bureaucracy, and provide guidance for managing the institution
7. Help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations
8. Be consistent with university bylaws, rules, and regulations
9. Be enforceable
10. Help reduce institutional risk

Note: Some issues may be better addressed through training and/or improved communication strategies rather than a new university-wide policy. Or, sometimes the issue can be addressed by revising existing policies, rules, or other governing documents.

Issuance is the term used when a new policy is issued. Issuances must go through the full university policy process.

Revisions are substantive content changes to existing policies. Material revisions must go through the full university policy process. Minor revisions (as defined below) may go through an expedited process.

Minor Revision applies when substantive changes to a policy are needed and those changes are driven by law/regulation, reflect minor improvements to the practices or procedures needed to implement the policy effectively, or better align the policy with requirements in other existing university governance documents (rules, policies, standards). Further, the minor changes do not affect the purpose of the policy, no amount of feedback will negate the need for the changes, and the changes require minimal socialization or communication.

Minor revisions can be made with the agreement and collaboration of the OUCI policy team. Minor revisions require the signature of the Responsible Office policy coordinator, Legal Affairs, the Responsible Office Executives, and the OUCI policy director.

Edits are non-substantive changes (i.e., format and grammar) and/or correction of error (e.g., department name change as a result of reorganization, title change, other minor, non-substantive fixes, etc.) that can be processed by the Responsible Office policy coordinator and the OUCI policy team.  Fixing a broken hyperlink is not an edit and does not require an edit date notation on the policy. Adding a website is an edit that requires an edit date notation.

Review and Confirm Current means the policy was reviewed in full and the content was confirmed to be current. The policy should be adapted to the university policy template as needed, and other non-substantive edits can be made with the collaboration/agreement of the OUCI policy team. Review and confirm current requires the signature of the Responsible Office policy coordinator, Legal Affairs, the Responsible Office Executives, and the OUCI policy director.

Interim Issuance/Revision is a provisional policy that may be in place for up to 18 months (or longer in rare circumstances) when legal, regulatory, accreditation, or other urgent needs require the policy to be in place before the complete university policy process can be completed. An interim policy has the full force and effect of a non-interim policy.

Retirements occur when a policy is no longer needed or is more effectively combined with another policy.

The University Policy Review Committee (UPRC) meets monthly to discuss university policy drafts, share the status of ongoing policy work, and advance best practices for policy development, communication, and implementation. UPRC members represent a cross-section of the university, including all of the policy-owning offices, University Senate, the Wexner Medical Center, and regional campuses.