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This online Policy and Procedure Manual provides convenient access to Ohio University's official policy and procedure statements.
The Ohio University Policy and Procedure Manual is an organic document, always in transition. With 214 policies currently in place, our goal of review and revision on a three-year cycle means that in a typical month, six policies would be updated.
The formal review and approval process culminates with approval by the President. Following approval, the Office of Information Technology places the new or newly revised policy on the Web site, and sends out the hardcopy updates.
University Communications and Marketing announces publication of new and revised policy statements, and elimination of existing policies. The new and archive pages, linked here and from the Policy home page, also help you to keep track of changes.
Why the Different Formats?
- There are four different formats for online policies:
- Policies approved under the version of Policy 01.001 that has been in effect since January 31, 2008. Their online versions are official.
- Policies approved after the October, 2005, Trustees meeting (they adopted a resolution specifying that the President has final approval authority for all Policy and Procedure statements, so the signature block had to change), through January 28, 2008. These policies are formatted in conformance with the February 21, 2006, version of Policy 01.001. Their online versions are official, and will remain unchanged until their replacements are approved in the latest format.
- Policies that were approved under the version of Policy 01.001 that was in effect from October 1, 2002 through February 20, 2006. Their online versions are official, and will remain unchanged until their replacements are approved in the latest format.
- Policies that were approved under the version of Policy 01.001 that was in effect from May 3, 1994, through September 30, 2002, or earlier versions, are not official; they are provided online for convenience, and will remain online in their old format until their replacements are approved in the latest format.
Policies in the first categories, whose online versions are official, will be updated without going through the full review and approval process specified in Policy 01.001 only to correct broken links.
Policies in the final category, whose online versions are not official, will be updated without going through the full review and approval process specified in Policy 01.001 only to correct broken links, or to correct any remaining typographical errors, so that they match the signed copy of the policy. (Many of these older policies' online versions are the result of scanning the signed hardcopy originals and using Optical Character Recognition software to transform the scanned images into editable text files.)
Effective Dates of Policies
- Every policy approved since October, 2002, has an explicit "effective on" date field in the signature block at the top. Older policies have a "Date Issued," which was the effective date unless explicitly stated to the conrary.
Under HB 187, as of July 1, 2007, policies affecting the employment of classified staff take effect no sooner than 30 days after their approval. This is indicated explicitly in the signature block. All policies approved before July 1, 2007, and not since updated, were confirmed by the Board of Trustees as being in effect on July 1, 2007, and continuing in effect until updated or eliminated.
The Policy and Procedure Review Committee
- Policy 01.001 requires the establishment of the Policy and Procedure Review Committee ("PPRC"). PPRC membership is established by Presidential appointment.
Committee and Task Force History
- From 1995 to 2002, the manual was provided online just for convenient reference, with the hardcopy manual (distributed to more than 360 people) being the official version. From April, 2001, through September, 2002, the Task Force on Policy and Procedure reviewed the existing policies with the appropriate departments, suggesting changes to some policies, and the elimination of others. In addition to this review, the results of their work included a revised version of Policy 01.001, "Preparation of Policy and Procedures," which detailed an iterative, interactive review and approval process, and also included specifications for a new format for policy and procedure statements that was optimized for online reading.
Since the Fall of 2002, the online manual has been official; hardcopy publication is now restricted to the Executive Staff Officers, including the President, the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the Director of Legal Affairs, and to the University Archivist. With the exception of those individuals, no more hardcopy Policy updates are published by the Office of Information Technology.
From October 1, 2002, through November 30, 2005, the membership of the PPRC was established through the Committee on Committees, based on the minimum membership specified in the then-current version of Policy 01.001.
A new, revised version of Policy and Procedure 01.001, "Preparation of Policies and Procedures," was approved on February 21, 2006; it specifies a different signature block and some other modest formatting changes, as well as a revised process for the formal review and approval of new and revised policies, and, as mentioned above, with membership established directly by Presidential appointment.
Credits
- The online Policy and Procedure Manual was originally created and maintained by Linda Lawson and Kathy Llewellyn. Kristina Schnelle updated the format and content of many of the policies' HTML files while working as a student employee of Computer Services. Since 2002, most of the HTML file updates have been done by Dick Piccard as part of his work with the Policy and Procedure Review Committee.
Comments, Suggestions, and Questions
- The Policy and Procedure Review Committee solicits comments, suggestions, and questions about any part of the Policy and Procedure Manual. There are E-mail links at the end of each page in this Policy and Procedure Web site that you can use for this purpose. Comments and suggestions will be forwarded to the appropriate people. You can also contact the Policy and Procedure Review Committee through Dick Piccard, by phone at 593-1017.
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