University Policy and Procedure Statement System UPPS No. 01.01.01
Issue No. 6
Effective Date: 10/19/2005
Review: April 1 E3Y

01. POLICY STATEMENTS

01.01 The University Policy and Procedure Statement (UPPS) system provides a standard form for communicating university policies and procedures. The UPPS system provides a means for identifying those policies and procedures for review and revision as necessary to assure that they reflect current practices and are in accordance with any applicable rules, regulations, or laws.

01.02 University Policy and Procedure Statements (UPPSs) specify the principle policies and procedures that guide Texas State employees in the pursuit of university goals and objectives. They should be promulgated for those issues that affect major or critical areas of Texas State activity (such as copyrights, personnel (excluding faculty personnel items that are covered under Academic Affairs PPSs), University Scholars Program, and budgeting).

01.03 Texas State employees are responsible for being familiar with and following TSUS Rules & Regulations, University Policy and Procedure Statements, and divisional policy and procedure statements, all of which are available on the University's website.

02. PROCEDURES FOR INITIATION AND REVIEW OF PROPOSED NEW UPPS DOCUMENTS

02.01 Any person or group, through administrative channels to the appropriate vice president, may originate or recommend development of a proposed new UPPS, based on an identified need.

02.02 Selection and Responsibilities of Reviewers

a. In general, the reviewer of a UPPS is the person most knowledgeable about that policy and procedure. If more than one stakeholder has an interest in the UPPS, they will be identified and included in the review of the UPPS. In cases where there are more than one reviewer, the senior reviewer will be identified by the President’s Cabinet, and so noted in the UPPS.

b. A UPPS should be assessed with respect to its:

1) Reinforcement of the learning and improvement climate;

2) Encouragement of initiative and self-directed responsibility throughout the University;

3) Impact on customers and stakeholders affected; and

4) Necessity.

02.03 Once the reviewers have been identified, they will convene to develop a draft UPPS, in the approved format, that addresses the identified needs (See Attachment I for proper format and Attachment II for correct writing style).

02.04 The completed draft UPPS, along with a signed Reviewer’s Approval Sheet (Attachment III) including signatures of all reviewers, is submitted to the appropriate divisional executive assistant.

02.05 Upon receipt of the draft UPPS, with a signed Reviewer’s Approval Sheet or e-mail approval, the divisional executive assistant or designee will circulate the draft UPPS to identified stakeholders within its own division for comment.

02.06 Once comments are received internally, the divisional executive assistant will forward these to the senior reviewer of the draft UPPS for consideration.

02.07 After draft internal comments are addressed, the senior reviewer will re-submit a final draft copy of the UPPS to the divisional executive assistant. The divisional executive assistant will then circulate the UPPS to the executive assistants from each division. The proposed UPPS should be sent at least 1 month prior to the next scheduled UPPS review meeting.

02.08 All executive assistants will circulate the draft UPPS for comment within each division, as directed by the appropriate vice president to ensure that:

a. solicitation of input from all significant stakeholders is received;

b. any legal ramifications are considered; and

c. there are no conflicting issues posed across divisions.

In cases where there are no comments from a division, the executive assistant will still respond to the Director of University Planning & Assessment with a memorandum attesting to this.

02.09 The senior administrative assistant in the Special Assistant to the President’s office will circulate the draft UPPS for comment to the University Attorney, the Director of Internal Audit and Advisory Services, the Director of Athletics, and the Director of Equity and Access. If any comments are received from this group, they will be forwarded to the Director of University Planning & Assessment for consideration.

02.10 The University Attorney will be responsible for sending a copy of the proposed UPPS for comment to the System legal staff, as needed.

02.11 All comments received are returned to the Director of University Planning & Assessment within 2 weeks for distribution to all executive assistants. The comments should be divided into 2 categories: substantive and non-substantive. Non-substantive comments will include typos, grammatical errors and title changes.

The Director of University Planning & Assessment will collect all comments and divide them in groups by substantive and non-substantive. The collective comments will then be sent to the senior reviewer and to all divisional executive assistants.

The non-substantive comments will be incorporated into the document by the appropriate divisional executive assistant. The senior reviewer will review all substantive comments and address them by memorandum via the divisional executive assistant to the Director of University Planning & Assessment prior to the scheduled UPPS review meeting. If there are any concerns or issues needing reconciling, the vice presidents will discuss them with the senior reviewer at the scheduled meeting. The senior reviewer may be directed by the Cabinet to include additional comments and will further revise the UPPS, as directed by the Cabinet. If there are no concerns to be addressed, the UPPS will be electronically approved and the senior reviewer will not need to be present at the meeting.

02.12 The senior reviewer will forward the final revision, including Reviewer’s Approval Sheet or electronic mail approval, to the appropriate divisional executive assistant.

02.13 Upon receipt of the final revision of the UPPS from the senior reviewer, the executive assistant or designee will submit the following to the University Planning & Assessment office for processing:

a. the final revision of the UPPS, including all attachments, electronically;

b. the signed Reviewer’s Approval Sheet/e-mail approvals; and

c. a paper copy of the final approved document.

02.14 The University Planning & Assessment office will be responsible for:

a. assigning a number to the approved UPPS in accordance with the designated UPPS numbering system; and

b. distributing the official version of all UPPS documents via posting on the university website. A list of newly approved UPPS documents can be found in the monthly Human Resources Bulletin, as well as at http://www.txstate.edu/effective/UPPS/UPPS-Updates.html. This site should be checked regularly by employees for updates.

03. PROCEDURES FOR REVIEW OF EXISTING UPPS DOCUMENTS

03.01 Review cycles

a. Routinely, UPPSs are reviewed according to their review cycles; for example, every year, every four years, etc., from the last action date.

b. Any person or group, through administrative channels to the appropriate vice president, may originate or recommend revision or deletion of an existing UPPS.

b. UPPS Review meetings are held quarterly in January, April, July and October. Special issues requiring immediate attention (i. e., legislative mandates) will be discussed at an emergency-called UPPS Review meeting, or if this is not feasible, during the first 15 minutes of a scheduled Cabinet meeting.

03.02 Responsibilities of Reviewers

a. The senior reviewer's first responsibility is to prepare, in Congressional style (deletions are lined through and additions are capitalized with underlines using MS Word editing format), a revision of the UPPS, based on his or her knowledge of changes, if any, in the policy or procedure since the last review.

If there are multiple reviewers, the revised UPPS will contain the comments of other reviewers. The senior reviewer is responsible for obtaining consensus from the reviewers to be indicated by their signatures on the Reviewers' Approval Sheet (see Attachment III) or via electronic mail.

If consensus among designated reviewers on recommended changes is not obtained, the senior reviewer will decide on changes to recommend to the Cabinet. The senior reviewer will be responsible for informing the Cabinet of the views of the other reviewers.

b. If there are no changes, or only non-substantive changes (i. e., changes in position titles or individuals, small editorial changes), the senior reviewer will send a pen & ink memo to the appropriate divisional executive assistant attesting to this; sign-off of all reviewers is required on the memo or by attached electronic mail.

c. If there are substantive changes to the UPPS, the senior reviewer will present the revised UPPS (with Reviewers' Approval Sheet/e-mail approvals) to the Cabinet via the appropriate divisional executive assistant. The proposed UPPS should be sent at least 1 month prior to the next scheduled UPPS review meeting.

d. All comments received are compiled by category and returned by the Director of University Planning & Assessment to the senior reviewer to be addressed by memorandum via the divisional executive assistant to the Director within 2 weeks prior to the scheduled UPPS Review meeting. If there are any concerns or issues needing reconciling, the vice presidents will discuss them with the senior reviewer at the scheduled meeting. The senior reviewer may be directed by the Cabinet to include additional changes.

e. If there are no concerns, the UPPS will be electronically approved and the senior reviewer does not need to attend the meeting.

f. The senior reviewer will further revise the UPPS, as directed by the Cabinet.

g. The senior reviewer will forward the final revision (Congressional styling will be removed), including Reviewers' Approval Sheet or electronic mail approval, to the appropriate divisional executive assistant.

03.03 Responsibilities of Executive Assistants (or designees) in the Divisions

a. The executive assistants or designees will prepare the backup material for the vice presidents for the quarterly UPPS review meetings.

b. The Director of University Planning & Assessment will notify the executive assistant or designee when a UPPS is up for review. The executive assistant will in turn notify the senior reviewer that the UPPS is up for review.

c. The executive assistants will access the current official UPPS on the university website and forward it to the senior reviewer for updating.

d. The senior administrative assistant for the Special Assistant to the President will circulate the draft UPPS for comment to the University Attorney, the Director of Internal Audit & Advisory Services, the Director of Athletics, and the Director of Equity & Access. If any comments are received from this group, they will be forwarded to the Director of University Planning & Assessment for consideration.

e. Upon receipt of the revised UPPS, with a signed Reviewers' Approval Sheet or e-mail approval from the senior reviewer, the divisional executive assistant will circulate the revised UPPS to other executive assistants. All executive assistants will circulate the revised UPPS for comment within each division, as directed by the appropriate vice president. The University Attorney will send a copy for comment to the System Legal Staff, as needed. Comments are categorized and returned to the Director of University Planning & Assessment for compilation and distribution to all executive assistants. In cases where there are no comments from a division, the executive assistant will still respond with a memorandum to the Director of University Planning & Assessment attesting to this. All comments should be returned within 2 weeks.

f. Upon receipt of the final approved revision of the UPPS from the senior reviewer, the executive assistant will submit the following to the University Planning & Assessment office:

1) the final revision of the UPPS, including all attachments, electronically;

2) the signed Reviewers' Approval Sheet/e-mail approvals; and

3) a paper copy of the final approved document.

03.04 Responsibilities of the Director of University Planning & Assessment:

a. Distribute monthly to the executive assistants a rolling 12-month set of agendas so that reviewers have ample time to review their UPPSs.

b. Check with the executive assistants for pre-designated agenda items 2 weeks prior to the UPPS review meeting.

c. Check with the executive assistants, 1 week prior to the UPPS review meeting, for any routed UPPSs with no additional suggested changes, minor non-substantive changes (i. e., changes in position titles or individuals, small editorial changes), or UPPSs with senior reviewer concurrence to recommended changes. If there are any such UPPSs, the Director of University Planning & Assessment will send an e-mail asking each vice president to electronically approve these policies. If all vice presidents agree, the policies will be considered electronically approved and will be so noted on the UPPS Review meeting minutes. The senior reviewers of these documents will not need to be present at the meeting.

d. Upon completion of the final agenda for the UPPS review meeting, notify each executive assistant of the times each senior reviewer must be available to present their UPPS to the Cabinet, as necessary.

e. Distribute the official UPPS review meeting agendas and minutes in a timely fashion.

f. Distribute the official version of all UPPS documents via posting on the university website. A list of newly approved UPPS documents can be found in the monthly Human Resource Bulletin, as well as at http://www.txstate.edu/effective/UPPS/UPPS-updates.html. This site should be checked regularly by employees for updates.

g. Maintain a current index of all UPPSs, their most recent and upcoming review dates, names of reviewers, etc.

h. Edit final documents for style consistency across campus (see Attachment II).

i. Submit to the Cabinet quarterly a list of delinquent UPPSs (i. e., UPPSs which were approved by the Cabinet and have not been submitted for processing).

j. Convene quarterly meetings and prepare minutes of the meeting.

03.05 Responsibility of the President's Cabinet

a. The Cabinet will assure timely approval of all official University Policy and Procedure Statements.

04. OFFICIAL VERSION OF A UPPS

04.01 The current official version of a UPPS will be the latest version posted to the university website.

04.02 The effective date of the official UPPS is when it is posted to the university website, unless noted differently in the UPPS review minutes.

04.03 The University Planning & Assessment office is the official repository for all UPPS documents: current official documents and all past versions of the document, as well as reduced or deleted documents.

05. FORMAT OF UPPS DOCUMENTS

For the format for UPPS documents, see Attachment I for instructions and Attachment II for correct writing style.

06. PROCEDURE FOR DIVISIONAL POLICY & PROCEDURE STATEMENTS

06.01 Each vice president shall implement a policy system within his or her division which shall be posted on the university website.

06.02 The President's Cabinet, University Attorney, University Planning & Assessment office, and the Director of Internal Audit and Advisory Services will receive notification of new or revisions to divisional policy and procedure statements (PPSs) issued by each vice president. Concerns resulting from these policies will be negotiated by the affected offices and, if necessary, resolved by the Cabinet.

06.03 Divisional PPSs specify the policies and procedures that guide the division in executing their areas of responsibility. The PPSs may be detailed procedures (such as the steps to follow to change account managers) or may be broad policies (such as the role of academic deans). It is the responsibility of each vice president to assure appropriate stakeholders in other divisions are consulted so there are no conflicts among divisional PPSs.

07. AUTHORITY INVOKED BY UPPSs

07.01 At any time a conflict should occur between a UPPS and policy as reflected in documents of a higher authority (e.g., federal law, state law, Coordinating Board Policy, Regents' Rules, etc.), the policy as outlined in the document of higher authority will prevail. At any time a conflict should occur between policies of a UPPS and divisional policy statements, the policy of the UPPS will prevail.

08. REVIEWERS OF THIS UPPS

08.01 Reviewers of this UPPS include the following:

Position Date

Director, University Planning & April 1 E3Y

Assessment