How Policies are Managed

Policy 1000 provides complete details on policy management at JMU.

How Policies are Managed
The University Policy Committee (UPC) is a team that is responsible for assisting the president and vice presidents with the oversight and management of those policies that have wide university impact.The UPC has primarily two responsibilities: keeping existing policies up to date and suggesting new policies. The process for each is described below:

Steps for Keeping Policies Up To Date or Recommending New Policies

1. The need for a new or revised policy, or for the elimination of an existing policy, is typically identified by a vice president, academic unit or department head, dean or representative of the UPC. Any employee of the university community may recommend a new or revised policy, or the elimination of a policy, by contacting his/her director or head. An employee or student may also contact the appropriate stakeholder representative (specified in step 5 below) with suggestions.
2. Working in conjunction with the division’s representative serving on the UPC, the appropriate dean or academic unit or department head oversees the creation of a draft of the policy based on the standard policy template, following these guidelines. If a policy falls within the responsibility of more than one division, any appropriate division may assume the responsibility for drafting and reviewing the policy.
3. The resulting preliminary draft of the new policy will be reviewed and edited by the UPC.
4. The chair of the UPC will send a copy of the resulting draft to each vice president for review and approval for posting. The chair will make changes to the policies based on the feedback of the vice presidents through an iterative process.
5. Once the policy is approved for posting by the vice presidents, the chair of the UPC will post a copy of the resulting draft to the UPC website in the “For Public Review” section. The draft will be viewable only with a university password. The chair of the UPC will notify the university community of the presence of a draft policy and will send a notice of the posting to the Speaker of the Faculty Senate (“Speaker”), the Co-Chairs of the Employee Advisory Committee (“EAC Co-Chairs”) and the President of the Student Government Association (“SGA President”) identifying the policy draft that has been posted.
6. The draft will remain posted for ten business days, during which time the UPC will accept comments from the university community. During this posting period, the Speaker, EAC Co-Chairs and SGA President will have an opportunity to notify the UPC committee chair of any request to attend the next UPC meeting to provide comments on behalf of these organizations.
7. If the Speaker, EAC Co-Chairs and/or SGA President make a request to attend the next UPC meeting, the UPC will hear from the representative(s) at the beginning of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the UPC, according to their established schedule.
8. The comments received by the UPC from the university community and from any of the three organizations are advisory in nature and will not obligate the UPC to make any changes in its recommendations concerning the policy under consideration. After considering any comments, the UPC will finalize the draft of the policy.
9. The chair of the UPC will send a copy of the resulting final draft to each vice president for final review and approval. The chair will make changes to the policies based on the feedback of the vice presidents through an iterative process.
10. Once the final draft is approved by the vice presidents, the chair of the UPC will forward the resulting draft to the president’s office for final review and approval.
11. Physical and electronic files will be maintained by the chair of the UPC that contain pertinent backup materials applicable to the development of each new policy and procedure.
12. Once the president has approved a final draft, the chair of the UPC will ensure that the new policy is posted on the web-based Manual of Policies and Procedures.