October Policy Distribution Reminder and SYS Policy Approval Notice

Monday, October 31, 2022

October Policy Distribution Reminder and SYS Policy Approval Notice

As a reminder, the October 2022 institution policy distribution includes for comment two (2) substantively revised policies, one (1) rescinded policy, and technical revisions to forty-four (44) SYS policies and procedures.

Two (2) substantively revised policies:

One (1) rescinded policy:

Technical revision package:

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.

Please submit your feedback for the policies by:

  • Friday, November 4 for SYS 165 and the Vice President for Finance and Administration Technical Amendments
  • Tuesday, December 20 for SYS 155 and SYS 156.

Please find summaries of the policies and procedures below.

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 155, Instructor Educational Development in the UW System

  • The current version of SYS 155, Faculty Development and Renewal – The 1970’s and Beyond, is a “white paper” which guides future actions. The assumptions and guidance in this white paper are outdated and not in a policy format; there is no current policy which guides the education development of instructional staff at UW System institutions. With the establishment of a systemwide office to support and guide professional development, as well as centers for faculty development at individual campuses, the work that is integrated into both system and campus infrastructures is not guided by policy. Institutional accreditation also requires that faculty development exists.
  • Under these revisions, this policy is retitled as SYS 155, Instructor Educational Development in the UW System and re-formatted to align with the current UW System Administrative Policies template. These revisions include:
    • Revising terminology to acknowledge the broadening of the term “faculty” and “educational development” by both academic research and professional organizations.
    • Articulating signature programs at UW System.
    • Defining the roles of UW System Administration (UWSA) and universities for this work, including, but not limited to, the centers for teaching and learning.
    • Articulating the value and benefits of educational development for the UW System, universities, and instructors.
    • Articulating several accreditation standards and expectations related to educational development

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 165, The Academic Calendar

  • This policy defines the academic year and the UW System’s definition of the credit hour to award credit. Proposed revisions to the policy include:
    • In section 6, updated the numbering scheme to align with the current SYS policies template.
    • Added section 6.C, Religious Holidays, to address how institutions should consult with available religious calendars and attempt to minimize conflicts with religious holidays.
      • UW System Administration will provide multiyear information on religious observances so universities can be aware of religious observances at least 5 years in the future.
      • Universities should provide resources to students to inform them of applicable policies and procedures to address accommodations, and should designate an administrator to help students and employees in scheduling these accommodations.
      • UW System Administration will identify training and educational resources to address the importance of religious and cultural observances and various forms of anti-religious bias.

DRAFT RESCINDED POLICY

SYS 156, Guidelines for Faculty Retraining, Renewal, and Development

DRAFT technically amended policies and procedures

Vice President for Finance and Administration Technical Amendments

On August 31, 2022, UW System President Jay Rothman announced that the Office of Finance and the Office of Administration and UW-Shared Services would be merged into a single Office of Finance and Administration, with the former Vice President of Finance being re-designated as the Vice President of Finance and Administration.

To reflect this reorganization, forty-four (44) policies and procedures have been proposed for revision to update seventy-five (75) references to the now-outdated Vice President for Administration, Vice President for Finance, and their respective offices to the Vice President for Finance and Administration and the associated office. For twelve (12) references, the policy was updated to refer to the Senior Associate Vice President for Finance. No substantive revisions to these policies are being proposed as part of these technical amendments.

SYS Policy Approval Notification

On October 21st, President Rothman approved revisions to SYS 1244, Summer Prepay Deductions and Summer Session Benefits Eligibility.

See below for a brief summary of the policy approval.

SYS 1244, Summer Prepay Deductions and Summer Session Benefits Eligibility

The purpose of this policy is to set forth provisions for the following:

  • Maintaining employee benefit coverage over the summer months for faculty, academic staff, limited appointees, student assistants, and employees-in-training that are on an academic year contract or on an annual contract that does not include work during one or more summer months.
  • Benefit eligibility for employees whose first appointment is a summer service or summer session appointment.
  • Administration of benefit changes that occur during a short work break (SWB).

The following updates were made to the policy:

  • In Section 1, reworded “guidelines” as “provisions.”
  • In Section 6.C.II and 6.C.III, references to the “TSA” benefit were removed and replace with references to the “SRP” benefit. This is the same 403(b) Supplemental Retirement Program, which has just been renamed internally. Additionally, this update clarifies that deductions are taken from summer earnings for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HAS). These updates are to bring the policy into compliance with IRS regulations for these types of accounts.
  • In Section 6.E.II, reformatted “after” to be bolded instead of in all capital letters.
  • In Section 6.G., reformatted the second sentence to clarify that administrator resources can be found in the UW System Human Resources Family Changes web page, which is referenced in the preceding sentence.
  • In Section 6.I, removed gendered language in reference to the UW System Human Resources Benefits Director’s designee.
  • In Section 7, added references to the UW System Human Resources Family Changes and Summer Prepay Resources webpages.
  • Re-formatted subsection numbers to align with the current UW System Administrative Policies template.

There were no comments or concerns from institutions during the review period.