Policy on Policies
Policy on Formulation and Issuance of College Policies
Purpose
College policies must be thoroughly reviewed, maintained, and made available to the college community to promote practicality, compliance, and accountability.
Principles
With the approval of the senior leadership of the college, a unit head may use policy-making as a tool for establishing requirements of the college community that relate to his or her jurisdiction. In this way, college policies connect the college’s mission to individual conduct, clarify institutional expectations, support compliance with laws and regulation, mitigate institutional risk, and enhance productivity and efficiency in the college’s operations. Hamilton has established a standard policy document and review process to achieve consistency, appropriateness, and ease of understanding of, ease of access to, and compliance with college policies. The college charges the Compliance Oversight Leadership Team with the responsibility to manage this standard document and process and related systems, and to assist others to engage them effectively.
Developing a Policy
The responsible office prepares a draft using the standard policy template. When the responsible vice president has approved this draft, he or she will share the document with the necessary stakeholders and makes subsequent revisions.
Reviewing and Approving a Policy
With the responsible vice president’s approval, the chair of the COLT will distribute the draft of the policy document to COLT members in advance of the COLT meeting. The responsible vice president or the responsible office will present the draft policy at a COLT meeting, where the document will be reviewed for practicality and clarity. After the COLT meeting, the COLT chair and responsible office will review and make accepted changes proposed by the COLT and forward to the appropriate vice president or president for approval. Once the VP/president has notified the COLT chair of approval the chair will note on the document the date of final approval as the date the policy was “Originally Issued,” and will promulgate the policy to the college community.
Updating
On an as-needed basis, the responsible office will routinely review and modify the policy changes (such as new contact names, position titles and e-mail or Web addresses) to an existing policy document. The responsible office will note the date of such changes next to “Updated” on the policy document.
Revising
Substantive revisions must be communicated to the COLT which will then announce it to the campus community. Revised policy documents will be presented showing changes, unless these changes are so substantial as to make this impractical. In this event, the existing policy document and the document with the proposed revisions will be provided to COLT.
Communicating
The COLT will issue an announcement of a new or substantially revised policy. In the case of a new policy, this announcement will constitute its promulgation. The responsible office will handle ongoing compliance.
Withdrawal
A responsible vice president may deem it appropriate to withdraw an existing policy or consolidate with another policy, and will notify COLT of this intent. The COLT may issue an announcement of a withdrawn policy. The responsible office will deliver any additional communication.
Compliance
The office responsible for the policy assists compliance through the establishment of normal business practices, some of which will be outlined in the policy’s procedures, which support implementation of the policy. Routine human resources procedures also may assist compliance. The Business Office employs policies as a measurement tool in regular assessments of college operations. In addition, communications with and training of the college community will facilitate compliance.
Posting Online
Share contact information and link to policy with Karen Leach, vice president for administration and finance at kleach@hamilton.edu (315-859-4524).
