POLICIES
DEVELOPING & REVISING POLICIES
The Office of General Counsel is responsible for overseeing and managing the policy document development process. Specific processes must be followed when policies and procedures are developed or revised.
The Office of General Counsel reviews and provides advice regarding policy document proposals and reviews final drafts of new and revised policy documents in order to ensure adherenceto the university’s Policy Document Framework guidelines, standards and templates. The Office of General Counsel also maintains the University’s central repository of policy documents, both current and archived, and tracks required periodic reviews of policy documents.
Submissions for review by the Office of General Counsel, and any questions related to policy document review or development, or regarding University policy documents generally, should be sent to policy@macewan.ca. Reviews are completed in the order they are received, and the Office of General Counsel strives to provide recommendations within five working days of receipt.
New policy documents
If a need for a new policy document has been identified, follow these steps and track your progress using the Policy Document Action Form.
- The need for a new policy document will be brought forward either to or by the Policy Sponsor.
- The Policy Sponsor appoints a Responsible Office.
- Responsible Office completes the “Proposal” section of the Policy Document Action Form and brings the proposal forward to the Policy Sponsor for approval.
- After receiving approval from the Policy Sponsor, the Responsible Office brings the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General Counsel for recommendation to proceed.
Once the Office of General Counsel’s initial recommendations are received, the Responsible Office then:
- Drafts policy and takes policy document through required consultation, making revisions to the draft(s) as necessary.
- Completes the Statement of Purpose for Policy Feedback form and sends both the form and the draft policy document to the Office of General Counsel for posting on the policies website for 10 business days in order to receive feedback from faculty, staff and students.
- At the end of the 10 business days, reviews and considers all feedback received and revises the policy document as required.
- Once all consultation and feedback has been considered, the Responsible Office completes the “Process” section of the Policy Document Action Form and sends the finalized policy and the Policy Document Action Form to the Policy Sponsor for process approval.
- After receiving approval, the Responsible Office sends the finalized policy document and the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General Counsel for a recommendation to proceed to final approval.
Once the recommendation to proceed for approval is received from the Office of General Counsel, the Responsible Office sends the document to the appropriate governing body:
- If an Academic Policy
The Responsible office sends the Policy (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to GFC Executive Committee for a recommendation for approval. Once GFC Executive Committee recommends for approval, Responsible Office ensures policy is submitted to GFC for final approval. - If an Academic Procedure
The Responsible office sends the Procedure (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to GFC Executive Committee for approval. - If an Administrative Policy
The Responsible Office sends the Policy (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to the PPC for a recommendation for approval. Once PPC recommends for approval, Responsible Office submits policy to appropriate Board Committee for recommendation for approval to the Board and, once that recommendation is received, to the Board for final approval. - If an Administrative Procedure
The Responsible Office sends the Procedure (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to the PPC for approval.
Responsible Offices are requested to submit policy documents to PPC, GFC Executive Committee, Board Committees, Board of Governors and/or GFC following the standard procedures and templates used with any other document being submitted to those groups.
- Once final approvals are received from the appropriate governing body, Responsible Office provides the Office of General Counsel with confirmation of approval and final version of policy document for posting.
- Office of General Counsel sets the date of next review of the policy based on the effective date and posts the policy document on the online policy repository.
Comprehensive revision to policy document
Comprehensive Revision is defined as any change to a policy document that is not a Minor Revision as defined in the section below.
If a comprehensive revision to a policy has been identified, follow these steps and track your progress using the Policy Document Action Form.
- The need for a comprehensive revision will be brought forward either to or by the Policy Sponsor.
- The Policy Sponsor appoints a Responsible Office.
- Responsible Office completes the “Proposal” section of the Policy Document Action Form and brings the proposal forward to the Policy Sponsor for approval.
- After receiving approval from the Policy Sponsor, the Responsible Office brings the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General Counsel for recommendation to proceed.
Once the Office of General Counsel's initial recommendations are received, the Responsible Office then:
- Converts the old policy document into the new policy document template (if applicable), makes proposed revisions to the policy document (using tracked changes), and then takes the policy document through required consultation, making revisions to the draft as necessary, and ensuring all proposed revisions are tracked.
- Completes the Statement of Purpose for Policy Feedback form and sends both the form and the draft policy document to the Office of General Counsel for posting on the policies website for 10 business days in order to receive feedback from faculty, staff and students.
- At the end of the 10 business days, reviews and considers all feedback received and revises the policy document as required.
- Once all consultation and feedback has been considered, the Responsible Office completes the “Process” section of the Policy Document Action Form and sends the finalized tracked policy document and the Policy Document Action Form to the Policy Sponsor for process approval.
- After receiving approval, the Responsible Office sends the tracked version of the finalized policy document and the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General Counsel for a recommendation to proceed to final approval.
Once recommendation to proceed for approval is received from the Office of General Counsel, the Responsible Office sends the document to the appropriate governing body:
- If an Academic Policy
The Responsible office sends a tracked version of the revised Policy (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to GFC Executive Committee for a recommendation for approval. Once GFC Executive Committee recommends for approval, Responsible Office ensures the Policy is submitted to GFC for final approval. - If an Academic Procedure
The Responsible office sends a tracked version of the revised Procedure (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to GFC Executive Committee for approval. - If an Administrative Policy
The Responsible Office sends a tracked version of the revised Policy (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to the PPC for a recommendation for approval. Once PPC recommends for approval, Responsible Office submits the Policy to appropriate Board Committee for recommendation for approval to the Board and, once that recommendation is received, to the Board for final approval. - If an Administrative Procedure
The Responsible Office sends a tracked version of the revised Procedure (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to the PPC for approval.
Responsible Offices are requested to submit policy documents to PPC, GFC Executive Committee, Board Committees, Board of Governors and/or GFC following the standard procedures and templates used with any other document being submitted to those groups.
- Once final approval of revisions received from the appropriate governing body, Responsible Office provides the Office of General Counsel with confirmation of approval and final clean version of policy document for posting.
- Office of General Counsel adjusts the date of next review of policy document based on the date of approval of the comprehensive revision and posts the revised policy document on the online policy repository.
Minor revision to policy document
Minor Revision is defined as a change to a policy document which does not affect the policy document’s rules, principles or intent, which changes would normally include position or department title changes, typographical errors such as punctuation or spelling, adding references to new Procedures or supporting documents, etc., but which may include other changes that serve to clarify perceived ambiguity in a policy document.
If a minor revision to a policy document has been identified, follow these steps and track your progress using the Policy Document Action Form.
Responsible Office completes the “Proposal” section of the Policy Document Action Form and brings the form and a tracked version of the policy document showing the proposed revisions forward to the Policy Sponsor for approval of the minor revision.
After receiving approval from the Policy Sponsor, the Responsible Office brings the Policy Document Action Form with the tracked version of the policy document showing the proposed revisions to the Office of General for confirmation the proposed revisions fall within the definition of a minor revision and a recommendation to proceed to final approval.
Responsible Office provides the Office of General Counsel with a clean final version of policy document for posting.
Office of General Counsel posts the revised policy document on the online policy repository, but does not adjust the date of next review of that policy document based on the date of approval of the minor revision, and the policy document is still comprehensively reviewed when next scheduled.
Rescinding a policy document
If the need to rescind an existing policy document has been identified, follow these steps and track your progress using the Policy Document Action Form.
If the policy document is not being replaced:- The need for a rescission will be brought forward either to or by the Policy Sponsor.
- The Policy Sponsor appoints a Responsible Office.
- Responsible Office identifies any other policy documents that refer to the policy document in question and that will require revision as a result of the rescission.
- Responsible Office completes the “Proposal” section of the Policy Document Action Form, and includes the list of other policy documents which refer to the policy document proposed for rescission, and brings the proposal forward to the Policy Sponsor for approval of both the rescission and of minor changes to the list of other policy documents to remove reference to the policy document proposed for rescission.
- After receiving approval from the Policy Sponsor, the Responsible Office brings the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General Counsel for recommendation to proceed.
Once the Office of General Counsel’s initial recommendations are received, the Responsible Office then:
- Takes the policy document through required consultation.
- Completes the Statement of Purpose for Policy Feedback form and sends both the form and the policy/procedure to the Office of General Counsel for posting on the policies website for 10 business days in order to receive feedback from faculty, staff and students.
- At the end of the 10 business days, reviews and considers all feedback received and revises rescission plan as required.
- Once all consultation and feedback has been considered, the Responsible Office completes the process section of the Policy Document Action Form and sends the form and a copy of the policy document proposed for rescission to the Policy Sponsor for process approval.
- After receiving approval, the Responsible Office sends the policy document and the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General Counsel for a recommendation to proceed to final approval.
Once recommendation to proceed for approval is received from the Office of General Counsel, the Responsible Office sends the document to the appropriate governing body:
- If an Academic Policy
The Responsible Office sends the Policy (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to GFC Executive Committee for a recommendation for approval. Once GFC Executive Committee recommends for approval, Responsible Office ensures the Policy is submitted to GFC for final approval. - If an Academic Procedure
The Responsible Office sends the Procedure (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to GFC Executive Committee for approval. - If an Administrative Policy
The Responsible Office sends the Policy (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to the PPC for a recommendation for approval. Once PPC recommends for approval, Responsible Office submits the Policy to appropriate Board Committee for recommendation for approval to the Board. - If an Administrative Procedure
The Responsible Office sends the Procedure (with a copy of the Policy Document Action Form) to PPC for approval.
Responsible Offices are requested to submit policy documents to PPC, GFC Executive Committee, Board Committees, Board of Governors and/or GFC following the standard procedures and templates used with any other document being submitted to those groups.
- Once final approval is received from the appropriate governing body, Responsible Office provides the Office of General Counsel with confirmation of approval.
- Office of General Counsel has policy document removed from the online policy repository and updates the policy archives.
- Office of General Counsel posts updated versions of the policy documents which previously referred to the rescinded policy document (as included in the list on the Policy Document Action Form) on the online policy repository.
Responsible Office identifies other policy documents that refer to the policy document proposed for rescission and that will require review and revision as a result of the rescission.
Responsible Office brings the rescission proposal of the existing policy document forward to the Policy Sponsor and the Office of General Counsel, at the same time as the new policy document that is replacing it, with the “Proposal” section of the Policy Document Action Form completed, ensuring that all policy documents which refer to the Policy or Procedure proposed for rescission are identified on the form.
The appropriate policy document approval process is then followed.
Periodic review of a policy document
If the need to conduct a periodic review of an existing policy document has been identified, follow these steps and track your progress using the Policy Document Action Form.
If the periodic review results in the need for changes:
Follow the process as set out above for a Comprehensive Revision or Minor Revision to a policy document.
If the periodic review does not result in the need for changes:
Responsible Office completes the “Proposal” section of the Policy Document Action Form and brings the form, including a record of all consultation, forward to the Policy Sponsor for approval.
After receiving approval from the Policy Sponsor, the Responsible Office brings the Policy Document Action Form to the Office of General to confirm no changes are necessary and the Office of General Counsel adjusts the date of next review of that policy document.