I. Policy Requirements

Policy Development and Approval Policy

 

II. Policy Drafting Conventions

 

A. "Above-the-Line" Information

Guidelines for adding pertinent policy information on page 1 are enumerated below.

1.  Title of the Policy

Policy titles should be descriptive and informative without being verbose. 

2.  Approvers

The default approver is the President. 

If the policy is mandated or formally approved by the Board of Trustees, the Board of Trustees is the approve.

If a policy is an academic policies, the President and the Academic Senate are listed as approvers.

3.  History

List the date the policy was Issued, Last Revised, and Last Reviewed. Use full date format (e.g. December 15, 2019).  If the policy is new, do not include any historical dates, as these will be added once the policy is finally approved and published on the policy website.

4.  Related Policies

List, with active hyperlinks, all policies that relate to the policy being developed or revised.  (E.g., the Conflict of Interest Policy for Staff and Faculty would list the following related policies:  Conflict of Interest Policy for Trustees, Gifts from Contractors/Vendors Policy, and Conflict of Commitment Policy for Faculty).

5.  Additional References

List all related procedures, guidance documents, or other other pertinent information.  (E.g., for the Travel Policy, hyperlinks to the expense reimbursement form and to the related procurement policies are listed).

6.  Policy Owner

List the individual/office with primary responsibility for oversight of the policy. This is someone at a senior level, such as the Office of the President, the Provost, or a University Vice President.

7.  Contact Person

List the individual who should be contacted if there are questions about the policy.

B.  Body and Text of Policy

 

1.  Drafting the Policy

Use Word format or a Google Document to draft the policy.  Use section titles that are descript, and order the flow of information logically for the reader.   Use traditional outline format. Include definitions for commonly used terms, and use subsections for sections that have multiple related requirements or pertinent information. For example:

I.   Policy Statement

(Summarize the requirements to be detailed in the remainder of the policy. This allows users to know that they are looking at the right policy. In the event that a user is in the wrong policy for their needs, relevant links should direct them to the correct location.)

II.  Definitions

(Aside from defining relevant terms, the definitions section may need to briefly describe various committees or groups. If there are no relevant definitions, this section can be omitted. Definitions should be concise and direct, and should be indented and alphabetically labeled.)

     A.  Conflict of Interest

     B.  Employee

     C.  Financial Interest

III.  Conflict Situations

     A.  Financial Conflicts

     B.  Externally-Funded Research

     C.  Employment Conflicts

IV.  Disclosure of Potential Conflicts

(Other policy sections should continue with the next Roman numeral. If a portion of the policy is very long, consider possible ways to break the section up into smaller sub-sections. All sections and sub-sections should contain a descriptive title to order the flow of information.)

III. Submitting the Draft Policy 

Forward the draft policy electronically to the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer (CUA-COMPLIANCE@CUA.EDU) so that it can be forwarded to the Policy Committee for consideration per the University policy process.

 

IV.  Approval and Publication

Once a policy has been reviewed by the Policy Committee (and the Board and/or the Academic Senate if applicable) and is approved by the cognizant division head and the President, the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer will publish the policy to the policy website.