October University Policy Distribution, SYS Policy Approvals, and Federal Fridays

October University Policy Distribution 

The October university policy distribution contains one (1) revised UW System Administrative policy and two (2) proposals to rescind UW System Administrative policies.

Revised UW System Administrative Policy

• SYS 314, Financial Management of Auxiliary Operations

Proposals to Rescind UW System Administrative Policies

• SYS 605, Loss-Fund Operations
• SYS 620, Working in Isolation

Click on the links above to view the drafts and ensure that your feedback is captured for review during the post-comment period. Comments can include attachments, including word documents and PDFs.

Comments on the proposed policy revision and recissions above are due at 5:00 pm on Friday, November 14. 

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 314, Financial Management of Auxiliary Operations

These policy revisions will be effective upon signature by the President.  

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

• This policy sets forth legal and policy principles applicable to the financial management of auxiliary operations.
• Proposed revisions include:
  • Throughout the policy, updated to fit current UWSA formatting standards and template. This included the addition of Section 2. Responsible UW System Officers, and Section 9. Scheduled Review.
  • Throughout the policy, made technical adjustments related to new Workday terminology.
  • Throughout the policy, replaced “reserves” with “balances.”
  • Retitled Section 1 (formerly I) from “Introduction” to “Policy Purpose.”
  • Moved content from former Section VI, Compliance to new Section 3, Scope and Institutional Responsibilities and added reference to RPD 21-6, Program Revenue Calculation Methodology and Fund Balances Policy.
  • Moved information on Auxiliary Enterprises from Section 5 (formerly Section III), Definitions to the new Section 4, Background.
  • In Section 5, Definitions, removed references to obsolete statutes, Section 20.285(1)(h) and Section 36.46.
  • Throughout Section 6, removed policy sections related to the obsolete statutes, Section 20.285(1)(h) and Section 36.46.
  • In Section 6.D, clarified that transfers must be approved by the UW Administration Vice President for Finance and Administration.
  • Incorporated previous Section V. Procedures into new Section 6.G.
  • In Attachment 1, updated to reflect procedure for requesting auxiliary transfers.
  • Removed attachments 3 and 4 as they are no longer applicable.

PROPOSALS TO RESCIND

SYS 605, Loss-Fund Operations

This policy will be rescinded upon signature by the president.  

Background Summary of Policy

• The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines and reporting procedures for reimbursement from the Fund 999 in the event of damage to university property.

Rationale for Rescission

• The Office of Risk Management, in consultation with the Office of Finance, has determined that the guidelines and procedures found in this policy would better serve the Universities of Wisconsin as departmental procedures and guidance rather than system policy.
• The Risk Management procedures can be found in the Risk Management Manual.
• Additional finance procedures shall be developed and shared prior to the rescission of this policy.

SYS 620, Working in Isolation

This policy will be rescinded upon signature by the president.

Background Summary of Policy

• The purpose of this policy is to provide a risk evaluation framework to ensure the safety of faculty, staff and students who work, volunteer or perform for credit activities alone in potentially hazardous environments within, but not limited to campus teaching and research laboratories, studios, workshops and other facilities or environments.
• Prior to 2020, UWSA offered a customizable working in isolation safety program for the universities to adopt. This approach was, and remains, similar to the approach taken for UWSA’s approximately 50 other customizable safety programs that are designed to be modified to meet university specific needs while keeping with regulatory and statutory requirements.
• A 2020 Laboratory Safety Audit recommended that UWSA adopt a system-level working in isolation policy for laboratories. In response, SYS 620 was created making it UWSA’s first and only occupational safety program elevated to a system-level policy, UWSA’s approximately 50 other safety programs remain procedures. The newly issued SYS 620 included not only laboratories, but a variety of other locations found on campus and placed several requirements on the universities that were generally beyond those found in statute or regulation.

Rationale for Rescission

• Regent Policy 23-2 assigns chancellors the responsibility for ensuring health, safety, and security at UW universities, including maintaining university-specific policies. To support this, UWSA’s Office of Risk Management offers a robust library of approximately 50 safety programs designed to be customized to meet university-specific needs. Only one—SYS 620, Working in Isolation—is a formal system policy.
• The universities have indicated a desire to better align their working in isolation programs with their university-specific needs, while continuing to meet statutory and regulatory safety standards.
• As such, UWSA’s Office of Risk Management proposes rescinding SYS 620 and returning it to a safety program, once again aligning this topic with the rest of UWSA’s occupational safety library. This new program will be implemented immediately following the rescission of SYS 620.

SYS Policy Approvals

On October 8, President Rothman approved the recission of SYS 1288, Reinstatement of Employment Privileges Under Wis. Stat § 36.115(6).

For more information on the recission, see the summary below.

SYS 1288, Reinstatement of Employee Privileges Under Wis. Stat § 36.115(6)

Background Summary of Policy

• The purpose of this policy was to establish a procedure that allowed UW System employees holding positions in the classified service on June 30, 2015, to retain the reinstatement privileges that they had under Wis. Stat. § 230.31(1), which provides that employees are eligible for reinstatement to classified service positions in state agencies for a five-year period.

University Comments and Concerns

• There was no feedback provided during the university distribution.

Rationale for Rescission

• During the review of SYS 1200 Series policies to align with the current SYS policy template, it was determined that this policy only retained the eligibility for permissive reinstatement to classified service positions in state agencies for employees who held classified positions on June 30, 2015 until July 1, 2020.
• Given that the five-year period of reinstatement privileges has passed, this policy was obsolete and rescinded.

Federal Fridays

The Universities of Wisconsin Federal Update Working group has a Federal Updates web page for the public to learn about the federal issues the UW is monitoring. The site provides a dashboard view of the various issues organized by topic, with a summary and links related to the topic.