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Policy Review Process Flow
The Policy owner (a vice president, vice provost or similar level) notifies the UPC of a proposed new policy or substantive policy change by submitting it through the UPC email box, policycommittee@unlv.edu. The chair or vice-chair will contact the owner to discuss the draft policy and timing. The item will be placed on the next possible UPC agenda and the policy owner will be asked to attend to answer questions.
The proposed policy is reviewed by UPC to determine if it meets the criteria below:
Does it require the President's signature because it applies to the majority of students, faculty, and staff?
Is it a policy, not guidelines, procedures, bylaws, or an academic policy that may need to start with the Faculty Senate?
Have the appropriate stakeholders been consulted?
Has it been reviewed by general counsel?
Does it conflict with existing policies?
A designated editor checks history, content, organization.
The UPC may ask questions of the policy owner at the meeting. Based on the interaction, the UPC may ask the policy owner to make changes and resubmit the draft policy. If the changes are substantive and/or require additional review by the Office of General Counsel, the policy owner will make the changes and obtain approval of General Counsel. The original and red lined documents are then emailed to the chair and vice-chair of the UPC. The UPC may vote at its next meeting (or via email in the case of an urgent need to move the policy forward quickly) to move the draft policy to the 30 day posting period and it will be posted at Policies Available for Comment.
If no changes are needed, the UPC may vote to move the policy to the 30 day posting period and it will be posted as stated above.
Comments on draft policies come to the UPC email and are forwarded to the policy owner for consideration. It is highly recommended that policy owners respond directly to the individual/s who submit/s the comment/s in preparation for addressing the public comments with the UPC prior to final approval.
Availability of the draft policy for comment is communicated through:
UNLV Today,
RAVE (student email system) if appropriate.
The policy owner is required to communicate and reach out to stakeholder groups for feedback on the policy.
When 30-day comment period ends, the policy owner will attend the next UPC meeting and discuss the comments received and whether or not the feedback was incorporated. If changes were made to the draft policy, the owner will provide an electronic copy to the chair and vice-chair of the UPC prior to the meeting so that the UPC members can review the changes made. If feedback was not incorporated the policy owner will explain the decision. If changes are substantive enough to require another review by the Office of General Counsel, the policy owner must obtain that review prior to meeting with the UPC. The policy owner must also inform the UPC of the additional communications held with stakeholder groups.
The UPC reviews the final draft and may vote to recommend the policy to the President for signature.
The UPC will obtain all the necessary signatures on the policy and a PDF of the final document will be sent to the policy owner. Once the President signs the policy, it will be posted on the University Policies website in the appropriate section.
The policy owner may post the policy in additional places, implement the policy, and will make any announcements or communications deemed appropriate to inform the campus.
Twice a year, shortly after the semester has begun, there will be an announcement of policies recently implemented via UNLV Official. This announcement will also be sent to students via RAVE if any of the policies pertain to them.