University of Minnesota  Procedure

Revising or Retiring an Existing Administrative Policy

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Questions?

Please use the contact section in the governing policy.

Overview

Revisions to policies are typically triggered by:

  • a change in a related law;
  • a change in the matching Board of Regents policy;
  • an opportunity to reduce burden, save money, or other management driver;
  • the completion of a comprehensive review; or
  • a determination that the policy is no longer needed.

The following procedures apply to revisions driven by something other than the completion of a comprehensive review.

Identify the need for a change

  1. When the policy owner has need for a change, they specify whether or not they would categorize the requested change as minor or major.
    1. If the requested change is minor, and the Director of the University Policy Program (UPP) concurs, the policy owner e-mails the request to the [email protected] to incorporate the change in the existing policy.
    2. If the requested change is major, the policy owner creates a revised version, using the track change feature in Google Docs on the existing document(s) to highlight the specific language changes proposed. Policies that are proposed for retirement need not be marked up.
  2. The policy owner consults with key constituents on the proposed changes to obtain feedback, and revises the draft if needed.
  3. The owner completes the Administrative Policy Comprehensive Review form (UM 1648) and informs the University Policy Program (UPP) Director that the policy is ready to present to the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC).
    1. A comprehensive review form is also required for policies that are proposed for retirement.
  4. The departments sends the track-change version of the revised policy (if not proposed for retirement), the Comprehensive review form, and all associated documents to the UPP director.

Policy Draft Review

  1. The UPP director schedules the policy owner for an upcoming PAC meeting.
  2. The policy owner presents the document and the change request form to PAC. The PAC provides specific suggestions as to content, language, level of detail, and readability. After receiving the input from the PAC, the policy owner will determine which suggestions to accept, and updates the policy draft as needed.
  3. If the change is determined to be major, the policy is placed on an agenda for the next quarterly President’s Policy Committee (PPC) meeting by the UPP director.
  4. The policy owner presents the documents to PPC and responds to questions.
  5. The PPC determines whether or not to approve the proposed policy changes.
  6. If yes, the policy, after incorporating updates based on the discussion with the PPC, is posted on the policy website for 30-days. An announcement is made in the Brief by the UPP director. Policy owners should communicate the policy changes to their end users.
    1. Policies that are approved for retirement will be retired from the policy website.
  7. The policy owner, the UPP director, and the PPC Chair review comments received from this public comment period. A determination is made as to what modifications to the policy draft will be made.
  8. The PPC Chair will either approve the policy for publication on behalf of the PPC, or, if there are major changes that result from the public comment period, will bring the final policy back to the PPC for approval to publish.

Implementation

  1. The final policy revision is sent to the UPP for updating to the production policy website.
  2. If the policy changes include a requirement for formal training, the policy owner works with the appropriate training specialists to ensure that it is deployed (e.g., changes or new financial policies should also go through Training Services so that training materials and/or associated courses reflect the most current information.)
  3. The policy owner will use a variety of communication vehicles to disseminate the policy information to the appropriate audiences. The UPP will distribute the quarterly policy newsletter, and assist the policy owner with any additional communication, at the request of the policy owner.