April University Policy Distribution, SYS Policy Approvals, Federal Fridays and FY 2025 Policy Prioritization

Friday, April 25, 2025

April University Policy Distribution 

The April university policy distribution contains two (2) revised policies, three (3) revised procedures, and one (1) new procedure.

Revised Policies

Revised Procedures

New Procedure

Click on the link above to view the draft and ensure that your feedback is captured for review during the post-comment period. Comments can include attachments, including word documents and PDFs. Comments are due by 5:00pm on Friday, May 16.
DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 232, Benefit Prepay Deductions and Short Work Break Benefits Eligibility

These policy revisions will be effective as of July 1, 2025. 

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • This is the second of two planned updates to the Summer Prepay policy.  The first update was approved on March 6, 2025.
  • This update has two primary purposes:
    • The update to Section 4 expands the availability of the summer prepay program to any recurring 9, 10, or 11 month employee, including those who are not on C-basis academic year appointments.  This codifies a longstanding practice of allowing employees on less-than-full-year appointments to prepay for benefit to cover the portion of the year they are on a short work break (even if this is not the summer).
    • This update revises Section 6 to change the time frame over which prepay deductions are taken from an employee’s paycheck.  The past practice has been to take extra deductions from the employee’s paychecks in March, April and May to cover the employee benefit contribution over the summer months.  The updated policy spreads out these deductions over the entire academic year (or other full period of active employment, for employees who are not C-basis academic year employees).  The net effect is smaller deductions taken over a longer period of time to cover employee benefit contributions during the short work break.
  • Additional updates are as follows:
    • Changing of the title from “Summer Prepay Deductions and Summer Session Benefits Eligibility” to “Benefit Prepay Deductions and Short Work Break Benefits Eligibility.”
    • Throughout the policy, replaced “Summer Prepay Deductions” with “Benefit Prepay Deductions.”
    • In Section 5, the definitions to “Short Work Break” and “Summer Prepay Deductions” were changed to reflect the change from “Summer Session” to “Short Work Break.”
    • In Section 6.A, university staff are added to the list of eligible staff.  

 

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 312, Official Functions

These policy revisions will be effective on July 1, 2025. 

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • The purpose of this policy is to establish the general parameters for holding and funding UW System official functions. The following revisions have been made:
    • In Section 3, added language to clarify that all institutions must adhere to this policy.
    • In Section 5, expanded the definition of Approving Authority to also include Chief Businesses Officers or Expense Operations leads.
    • In the first paragraph of Section 6, added language to clarify that an Approving Authority may make reasonable and moderate expenditures (excluding alcoholic beverages unless paid with Foundation funds). Also updated the formal authorization process for expenditures to align with the new process in Workday.
    • In the second paragraph of Section 6, clarified that the source of funds for expenses related to official functions cannot be general purpose revenue or grant funds.
DRAFT REVISED PROCEDURE

SYS 910.A, Leasing Process; Board of Regents as Lessee

This procedure will be effective upon signature by the Vice President for Finance and Administration.

Summary of Procedure and Procedure Revisions

  • This procedure outlines the process UW System institutions must follow when considering the leasing of real property as a lessee under Wis. Stat. § 36.11 (1)(b). The procedure outlines requirements for institutions where a chancellor has been delegated approval to sign leases by the UW System President, as permitted by Regent Policy Document 13-2, Real Property Contracts: Signature Authority and Approval. The following revisions have been made:
    • In section 2, changing responsible officer from AVP for Capital Planning and Budget to Senior AVP for Capital Planning and Budget.
    • Grammatical errors have been corrected throughout the procedure.
    • In section 6.A.I, language has been changed from “responsible” to “primary” institutional business officer.
    • In section 6.A.II, language has been added to identify the UW System Office of Capital Planning and Budget as the responsible party for institutions without delegated authority.
DRAFT REVISED PROCEDURE

SYS 999.A, Acquisition of Real Property Process

This procedure will be effective upon signature by the Vice President for Finance and Administration.

Summary of Procedure and Procedure Revisions

  • The purpose of this procedure is to outline the processes UW System Office of Capital Planning and Budget must follow when considering the acquisition of real property or agricultural land.
  • The following revisions have been made:
    • Removed header for Section 3, Scope, as this is not part of the current procedures template. Moved content from this section to Section 1, Purpose of Procedures.
    • In section 6.D, the assessment that must occur for all acquisitions has been changed from a Phase I/ Environmental Site Assessment to a Property and Real Estate Environmental Audit.
    • In Section 6.F, language has been added so that approved campus boundaries are established by a campus framework.
    • In Section 6.H, the last bullet point was added which adds the requirements that the campus must inform Risk Management of the acquisition to include the property in the state inventory.

 

DRAFT REVISED PROCEDURE

SYS 999.B, Sale of Real Property Process

This procedure will be effective upon signature by the Vice President for Finance and Administration.

Summary of Procedure and Procedure Revisions

  • The purpose of this procedure is to outline the requirements UW System Administration must follow when considering the sale of real property as permitted by Wis. Stat. § 36.11 (1)(b),  unless such property is subject to sale by the State of Wisconsin as permitted in Wis. Stat. § 16.848 (1)(a).
  • The following revisions have been made:
    • Removed header for Section 3, Background, as this is not part of the current procedures template. Moved content from this section to Section 1, Purpose of Procedures.
    • In Section 6.C, the following language has been added to the first paragraph:
      • An exception to the requirement for an appraisal is if the property is to be transferred to a non-profit entity at no cost, or foundation with a similar education or preservation purpose. This includes buildings and land.
    • In Section 6.H, language has been added so that the further distribution of proceeds would be determined on a case-by-case basis by the President of the UW system in consultation with CPB.
    • Section 6.I.iv has been added, which adds language regarding the granting of a waiver to an unsolicited buyer of a property.

 

DRAFT NEW PROCEDURE

SYS 910.B, Leasing Process; Board of Regents as Lessor

This procedure will be effective upon signature by the Vice President for Finance and Administration.

Summary of Procedure

 

SYS Policy Approvals 

On April 23, President Rothman approved the technical revisions to SYS 330, Prizes Awards and Gifts.

See below for a brief summary of this item.

 

SYS 330, Prizes, Awards and Gifts

These policy revisions will be effective on July 1, 2025. 

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • The purpose of this policy is to establish parameters for UW System institutions when granting prizes, awards, and gifts. Proposed revisions include:
    • Updating the policy to the current policy template by adding the following sections:
      • Section 1, Policy Purpose
      • Section 2, Responsible UW System Officer
      • Section 3, Scope and Institutional Responsibilities (formerly Background)
      •  Section 4, Background (formerly Constraints)
      • Section 7, Related Documents
      • Section 8, Policy History
      • Section 9, Scheduled Review
    • In Section 6.A (third bullet), establishing that cash prizes made to UW System employees will be made through payroll. This change will result from the implementation of Workday.

University Comments and Concerns

  • As this was a technical revision, this policy was not sent to the universities for comment. The FGAPC did not raise any concerns during their review.

 

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.