About

About the Administrative Policy Manual

This online Policy Manual provides convenient access to Ohio University's official policy statements.

The Ohio University Policy Manual is an organic document, always in transition. With 208 policies currently in place (and some two dozen proposed new policies in process), our goal of review and revision on a five-year cycle means that in a typical month, four policies would be updated.

The Policy creation, revision, and elimination process is established by Policy 01.001, "Preparation of Policies." The Executive Staff Policy Committee authorizes active revision of existing policies and creation of new policies. Drafts and the Reviewers' comments on those drafts are published through the password-protected Review site -- see the link for "Active Index" at the lower-right of that page or the policy manual home page.

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?

Revisions of Policy 01.001 and the associated Policy Drafting Guidelines have typically included changes in the format specified for policies. Further, in their October, 2005, meeting, the Trustees adopted a resolution specifying that the President has final approval authority for all Policy statements, so the signature block had to change. There are two primary categories of online policies:

  • Policies that were approved after October 1, 2002 — their online versions are official.
     
  • Policies that were approved before October 1, 2002 — their online versions are not official.

Policies in both categories remain unchanged until their replacements are approved in the latest format, with the following exceptions:

  • Policies in the first category, whose online versions are official, will be updated without going through the full review and approval process specified in Policy 01.001 only as specified in the Policy Drafting Guidelines' section titled, "Post-Approval Changes to Policies."
     
  • Policies in the second 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 as specified in the Policy Drafting Guidelines' section titled, "Post-Approval Changes to Policies." This includes changes 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 contrary.

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.

Under SB 3, as of September 17, 2014 (with a subsequent six-month grace period), policies are to be filed with the Legislative Support Commission, just as the Ohio Revised Code and other state agency rules and regulations are. The LSC systems require formatting changes, and also cannot have an effective date sooner than ten days after filing. OIT will file the change with the LSC only after the hardcopy signed by the President is in hand, so the effective date will typically be about two weeks after approval, unless HB 187 applies.

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 statements that was optimized for online reading.

Since the Fall of 2002, the online manual has been official; hardcopy publication was restricted to the Executive Staff Officers, including the President, the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the General Counsel, and to the University Archivist. With the exception of those individuals, no more hardcopy Policy updates were published by the Office of Information Technology. In the Winter of 2011, hardcopy publication was further restricted, to University Human Resources, Alden Library, and each regional campus library.

From October 1, 2002, through November 30, 2005, the membership of the Policy and Procedure Review Committee ("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 01.001, "Preparation of Policies and Procedures," was approved on February 21, 2006; it specified 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 with PPRC membership established directly by Presidential appointment.

A new, revised version of Policy 01.001, "Preparation of Policies," was approved on January 25, 2011; in addition to format and process changes, it replaced the PPRC with a "Policy Editorial Review Committee" ("PERC"). The chair and members of the PERC were appointed, but the committee never met. In May, 2013, the policy was revised again, removing the PERC.

Credits

The online Policy 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, initially as part of his work with the Policy and Procedure Review Committee.

Comments, Suggestions, and Questions

There are E-mail links at the end of each page in this Policy Web site that you can use to submit comments, suggestions, and questions about any part of the Policy Manual. Comments and suggestions will be forwarded to the appropriate people.