Statement
St. Olaf strives to create an environment that fosters innovation, excellence, and collaboration, seeking always to do so responsibly, ethically, and with integrity. College Policies are an important way to communicate the College’s values and expectations to members of the St. Olaf community, and to provide guidance as to their observance. To this end, the development, publication, and management of College Policies should be consistent with these Guidelines. Individual College departments and divisions are free to develop their own specific guidelines for the efficient operation of their offices as long as these guidelines do not conflict with College Policies.
Purpose
The purpose of these Policy Development Guidelines (“Guidelines”) is to outline a process for the effective and consistent development, approval, publication, and management of College Policies, and to provide guidance on the elements of effective and consistent policymaking. Accessible and well-developed policies will also promote efficiency and accountability and minimize institutional risks. These Guidelines are designed to promote expeditious policy development, approval, and management while allowing for discussion of draft policies that obtain input from the appropriate stakeholders.
Audience
These Guidelines apply to any member of the St. Olaf community who develops, reviews, approves, publishes, manages, or otherwise engages in the development and publication of College Policies.
Definitions
Approving College Official: a senior administrator whose approval is required to adopt or revise a College Policy, as determined by the Policy Review Committee. Approving College Officials may include the President, the President’s Leadership Team, or their designates. The General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer are responsible for co-chairing the Policy Review Committee, working with the Committee to review and edit draft policies, address questions from the College community regarding policy development and implementation, and otherwise managing the development and review of College Policies.
New Policy Proposal: a document that explains the reasons for, summarizes the content of, and indicates the stakeholders who will be consulted during the development of any proposed new or revised College Policy. New Policy Proposals are approved by the Policy Review Committee.
Policy Publication Manager: an appointed member of the Policy Review Committee whose responsibilities include archiving deaccessioned policies, maintaining the College Policy website, and implementing routine updates to existing policies.
Policy Review Committee: a standing College committee whose role is to advise the St. Olaf community on policy development and implementation; to review and approve New Policy Proposals; to designate the Responsible Office for approved proposals; to support (and expedite, where necessary) the policy development process; and to determine the Approving College Official(s) whose approvals are required to adopt or revise College Policies. The Committee is co-chaired by the Chief Financial Officer and the General Counsel, and includes representatives from the following offices: Provost, Finance, Human Resources, Student Affairs, Information Technology, and Marketing & Communications. The President may designate one or more stakeholders to participate in the Committee’s work. The Committee conducts its work in consultation with other offices, as appropriate.
Policy Sponsor: any St. Olaf department or division that (i) prepares the New Policy Proposal for a policy and/or (ii) works with the Policy Review Committee, the Responsible Office, and other stakeholders to develop and implement the policy.
Procedures: documents detailing the steps necessary to operationalize and implement policies. Procedures need not follow the development and approval requirements outlined in these Guidelines, but should be developed in consultation with the Policy Review Committee.
Responsible Office: the office that works with the Policy Sponsor(s) and the Policy Review Committee to develop and implement a policy. The Responsible Office is accountable for the accuracy of the policy and is responsible for the dissemination, timely review, and updating of the policy.
College Policy: a policy with broad application throughout the College that helps to ensure coordinated compliance with applicable laws and regulations, promotes operational efficiencies, enhances the College’s mission, or reduces institutional risk. In contrast with department or division policies, College Policies must be followed throughout the College.
Implementation
Proposing and developing policies: Any St. Olaf department or division (“Policy Sponsor”) may initiate a College Policy. After assessing the need for a policy and determining that the policy is broadly applicable throughout the College, the Policy Sponsor may initiate the policy development process by preparing a New Policy Proposal, using the proposal template. New Policy Proposals should (i) briefly explain the reasons for the proposed policy (indicating how it works with, conflicts with, or negates existing policy); (ii) summarize the content of the policy proposal; (iii) indicate the stakeholders from the St. Olaf community who will be consulted when developing the policy; and (iv) to the extent feasible, identify any cost or resource requirements of the proposed policy.
New Policy Proposals are approved by the Policy Review Committee, which will conduct an assessment of the need for the proposed policy, in consultation with senior administrators. The Policy Review Committee also designates or approves the Responsible Office and the Approving College Official(s) for each approved proposal. Once the proposal has been approved, the Responsible Office drafts the proposed policy using the standard policy template. Unless otherwise indicated, all sections in the template should be included; if a section in the template is not applicable, this may be indicated under the section heading.
Throughout the drafting process, the Responsible Office is responsible for proactively seeking input on and documenting policy development from the stakeholders identified in the proposal, along with other appropriate members of the St. Olaf community. The Policy Review Committee works with the Policy Sponsor and the Responsible Office to ensure that members of the St. Olaf community who have an interest in the policy’s subject matter have an opportunity to collaborate on policy development.
The Policy Review Committee may reassign the Responsible Office or take other necessary measures to ensure that a proposed policy is expeditiously developed and approved.
Reviews and approvals: Proposed policies are subject to review and approval by the designated Approving College Official(s). Prior to such review and approval, the Policy Review Committee reviews and edits draft policies. The Responsible Office, in consultation with the Policy Review Committee and, if necessary, the Approving College Official, will take comments under advisement and implement any necessary changes to the draft policy based on the comments received.
Interim policies: The foregoing review and approval requirements are subject to the qualification that the Approving College Official, in his or her discretion, may determine a proposed policy should be subject to an expedited approval process and adopted as an interim policy. Interim policies generally are effective for up to six months, but in any event will continue in effect until a determination is made to adopt, revise, or deaccession the policy.
Distribution and publication: The Responsible Office, in consultation with the Policy Review Committee, should coordinate the announcement and distribution of new policies or policy revisions. Additionally, the Responsible Office should provide notice to stakeholders and other affected members of the St. Olaf community when approved draft policies are posted to the College Policy website for review and comment. College Policies are published on the College Policy website. Departments and divisions should not maintain outdated copies or versions of College Policies on their separate website pages. When referencing College Policies, departments and divisions should hyperlink directly to the policy’s URL on the College Policy website. If a College Policy is listed on the website of a department or division, care should be taken to ensure that (i) the link to the policy on the College Policy website is current; and (ii) any amendments to the policy are promptly shared with the Policy Review Committee. All College Policies should be formatted in a PDF document that conforms to the standard policy template.
Updates and amendments: Each College Policy should indicate the policy’s effective date as well as the date when the next policy review is due. These dates are an important management tool, as they are used to notify the Responsible Office when it is time to review the policy. Policies remain in effect even if the review date has passed. The Responsible Office should conduct an initial assessment of any new policy or major policy revision one year after its effective date, and thereafter should review the policy a minimum of once every three years. The Policy Review Committee will strive to identify policies due to be assessed or reviewed, and notify the Responsible Office. The Responsible Office is responsible for updating the policy between scheduled review periods to respond to any changes in applicable law or business practice. The Policy Review Committee may charge a department or division with developing or revising a policy where necessary to ensure compliance with applicable law. Amendments to existing policies generally are subject to the procedures outlined above for adopting new policies, except where the amendment procedure is provided within the policy document (in which case notice of any amendments should be promptly provided to the Policy Review Committee). Routine revisions that do not change the substance of a policy (such as changing hyperlinks, crossreferences, position titles, or contact information in a policy) can be implemented by the Policy Publication Manager, in consultation with the Responsible Office, without formal review.
Deaccessioning and archiving The Responsible Office may deaccession a policy when it is no longer applicable, where it has been changed into guidelines or procedures, or where it would be more effective to integrate it into another policy. Requests to deaccession a policy should be submitted to the Policy Review Committee, which when deciding on the request will consider the impact of deleting the policy on other policies and on compliance with applicable law. The Policy Publication Manager is responsible for archiving deaccessioned policies and deleting them from the College Policy website.