2-1 Authority to Establish Policies, Procedures or Guidelines

• Effective date of this revision: December 20, 2012
• Contact for more information:  Office of General Counsel

BACKGROUND

The Manual of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines is a developing document. Ultimately it is intended to include most of the University’s policies. As new administrative policies and procedures are developed, they will be added to this manual, and existing administrative policies and procedures will be converted to this format and included within this manual. At this time, the Board of Trustees Manual of Policies, Practices and Regulations will be separately maintained.

CMU reserves the right to amend, or otherwise alter and/or delete, in whole or in part, all existing policies, and to add new policies as may be developed in the future.

PURPOSE

Central Michigan University wishes to ensure that all official university policies are formally approved, promulgated in a consistent format, and maintained in one central location.

This Policy is intended to identify what parties have authority to issue Policies, Procedures or Guidelines, and to describe the organization of a Manual of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines.

POLICY

The Board of Trustees has the ultimate authority to adopt, alter, or delete policy. In its Bylaws, the Board reserves certain powers to itself and delegates all other authority, including the power to adopt university policy, to the President. Policies of the Board of Trustees are online at

https://www.cmich.edu/bot/about/Pages/policy_manual.aspx

In the absence of Board policy or written delegation to a Vice President by the President, the President must ultimately approve all general University policies in writing.

The President hereby delegates the authority to adopt University policy as follows:

Policies that originate within a single unit may be issued by the Vice President in charge of that unit, after consultation with the President and other Vice Presidents.

Certain policies concerning academic matters are established by the Academic Senate, subject to the right of the President to veto. These policies are not included in this Manual. Many other academic policies come through the Academic Senate, are adopted by that body, and then are formally adopted by the President or Board of Trustees. These policies are included either in the Board of Trustees Manual of Policies, Practices and Regulations or in this Manual.

This Manual does not include the basic terms and conditions of employment affecting employees who are subject to a collective bargaining agreement. Nevertheless, because the several collective bargaining agreements entered into by Central Michigan University reserve certain management rights to the employer, the policies and procedures in this Manual may apply to unionized employees.

There are many other important policies and procedures applicable to students, faculty, or staff that do not meet the criteria for University Policies, Procedures or Guidelines set forth in the Definitions section below. Such documents include without limitation those issued by colleges, schools, academic and administrative departments and units and affecting only the personnel or operations of such units. These documents have separate adoption and approval processes and are not subject to this document.

DEFINITIONS

University policies, procedures, and guidelines shall mean those that have general applicability throughout the University.

Policies shall mean written statements or sets of statements that describe principles, requirements, and limitations and will be characterized by indicating “what” needs to be done rather than how to do it. Such statements will have the force of establishing rights, requirements, and responsibilities.

Procedures shall mean written documents providing specific “how to” information and will normally be developed by the office responsible for administration of a policy.

Guidelines shall mean written documents that further explain policies/procedures and will be characterized by narrative descriptions and examples that serve as aids in interpreting and applying them. Unless otherwise stated, guidelines will not normally have the force of establishing rights, requirements and responsibilities.

NUMBERING

The Central Michigan University Manual of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines will be organized into 12 chapters. The Chapter Titles are:

Within each chapter, the policies and procedures will be numbered. Each number will consist of two parts. The first part will be the number of the chapter; the second number will be a consecutive number of a policy within that chapter. For example, a policy number might look like this: 7-3. Because of the difficulty involved, related policies within a chapter may not be consecutive.

Each chapter will have a table of contents. An index of policies will also be maintained by the Office of General Counsel and will be the primary tool to assist a person to find a policy on a particular issue. The drafter, and any subsequent reviewer, is encouraged to suggest references for the Index to locate the policy or procedure.

STANDARD FORMAT

All policies, procedures and guidelines in the Manual will follow the standard format at the beginning of this Policy. Standard Sections within each policy, procedure or guideline include Background; Purpose; Definitions; Policy; Procedure; Guidelines. However, every document need not contain every section.

Each subsequent page of a policy or procedure shall have an abbreviated heading. The “Authority / History / Indexed As” section shall appear only at the bottom of the first page of the entire policy or procedure.

Policies, procedures and guidelines in the Manual shall use Word, Times New Roman, 10 point, and shall have one inch margins on the left, right and bottom. The text shall be justified at the left and right margins of each page.

The form for preparing policies, procedures or guidelines for the Manual may be found at

https://www.cmich.edu/offices-departments/general-counsel/administrative-policy-templates

PROCEDURE FOR INITIATING A POLICY, PROCEDURE, OR GUIDELINE FOR THIS MANUAL

Any office, department, or unit within the University may draft a proposed policy, procedure, or guideline that has general applicability throughout the University. The draft is forwarded through the appropriate organizational levels of that unit until it reaches a Vice President (President within the President’s division). Academic Senate policies are forwarded to the Provost. If the draft requires an explanation of the need for or the history of a proposed document, that shall be contained in a separate communication accompanying the draft. A cover sheet shall list those who must review the draft, with a space for their approval before forwarding to the next person.

When the draft reaches the Vice President (or President), that person shall decide if the draft requires additional discussion by committees, constituent groups, etc., and shall arrange for that discussion. At a minimum, the Vice President shall present the draft to the other Vice Presidents and the President before adoption.

At the conclusion of this review process, the University officer(s) authorized to adopt the policy, procedure or guideline shall sign and date one copy at the Authority line (on the bottom of the first page) and forward a signed and electronic copy to the Office of General Counsel. The General Counsel shall then add this document to the Manual. The Manual will be made available online at:

https://www.cmich.edu/offices-departments/general-counsel/policies-procedures-guidelines-index

It will be the responsibility of the originating department to communicate updates to a policy, or the addition of a new policy, to the university community once notified that the policy is online.

Central Michigan University reserves the right to make exceptions to, modify or eliminate this policy.This document supersedes all previous policies, procedures and directives relative to this subject.