Human Resources News

One (1) revised guidance document:

·       Guidelines for Reporting Outside Activities Under UWS 8.025

Please submit your feedback by Friday, May 5, 2023.

Additionally, as a reminder, SYS 102, Policy on University of Wisconsin System Array Management: Program Planning, Delivery, Review, and Reporting is still available for comment. Please submit your feedback for SYS 102 by Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

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 find summaries of the items below.

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

Guidelines for Reporting Outside Activities Under UWS 8.025

·       The purpose of this guidance is to clarify and define the outside activity reporting requirements for unclassified staff of the UW System.

·       This revision adopts procedures designed to avoid conflicts of commitment, wherein outside professional activities substantially interfere with an individual’s full-time UWS appointment.

·       The guidance clarifies that advance written permission is required for any outside professional activity if the aggregate time commitment to one or more outside professional activities will exceed an average of 16 hours per calendar month during hours that the employee would be normally on duty in a UWS position.

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 102, Policy on University of Wisconsin System Array Management: Program Planning, Delivery, Review, and Definitions

·       This policy provides detailed guidance on academic degree program array management actions, including the approval of new programs, review of program suspensions and eliminations, changes to programs, program reviews, and other required reporting and approval items at the Board of Regents or University of Wisconsin (UW) System level.

·       The list of proposed revisions is as follows:
 

·       General

·       Replaced references to “Academic Programs and Faculty Advancement” with “Academic Affairs.”

·       Removed the University Action table, which will be moved into a separate procedure in the future.

·       Renumbered policy sections as needed to reflect the addition or deletion of terms; the table of contents was also updated to reflect these changes.
 

·       Section 1, Introduction

·       Removed the definition of “unnecessary duplication.”

·       In Section 1.2.2, added a reference to Regent Policy Document (RPD) 4-12, Academic Program Planning, Review, and Approval in the University of Wisconsin System.

·       Added Section 1.2.3, The UW System Provost Council.
 

·       Section 2, Approval Process for New Academic Degree Programs and Degree Types

·       Replaced “new programs” with “new academic degree programs.”

·       In Section 2.1.1 (3) and (4), updated language to clarify that a change to the curricular content of a program determines whether a program is considered new. Additionally, clarified that a change to the first two Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) digits may that indicate a new program authorization may be required.

·       In Section 2.1.2, revised Step 1 to reflect that a Notice of Intent (NOI) is needed, regardless of track. Additionally, Step 2 was revised to clarify the pre-authorization process.

·       In Section 2.2, clarified the processes and eligibility requirements for NOI standard-track and fast-track. Additionally, added a three-step appeals process.

·       In Section 2.3, clarified the steps of the recommendation process, as well the role of the Board of Regents.

·       In Section 2.4, replaced “MajorMania” with “Find-A-Program.”

·       In Section 2.5, added language to clarify the requirement that UW associate degrees much follow the associate degree standards in SYS 115, Associate Degree Standards. Additionally, revised language to allow for the addition of a major to any UW associate degree.
 

·       Section 3, Existing Academic Degree Programs and Degree Types

·       In Section 3.2, clarified the threshold for a substantive change.

·       In Section 3.3, clarified the threshold for a curricular change the CIP changes which may require Board of Regents approval.

·       In Section 3.6, clarified that changing a program’s method of delivery to distance education may require Higher Learning Commission (HLC) approval or notification. Additionally, clarified that adding or eliminating distance delivery for an academic degree program requires notification at least four weeks prior to the effective date.

·       In Section 3.8, eliminated the requirement to notify UW System Administration of the addition or removal of a concentration to an associate degree.

SYS Policy Approval Notification

On March 29th, President Jay Rothman approved technical revisions to SYS 363, Change Requests of Bank and Contact Information; SYS 342, Extramural Support Administration; and SYS 920, Standards Manual for UW Managed Capital Projects.

On April 11th, President Jay Rothman approved substantive revisions to SYS 1035, Information Security: IT Asset Management. Additionally, Vice President for Finance and Administration Sean Nelson approved substantive revisions to SYS 1035.A, Information Security: IT Asset Inventory Standard.

On April 12th, President Jay Rothman approved the rescission of SYS 840, Student Financial Aid in Extended Degree Program Administration.

On April 14th, President Jay Rothman approved substantive revisions to SYS 1225, General Terms and Definitions.

On April 18th, President Jay Rothman approved substantive revisions to SYS 1277, Compensation.

On April 19th, President Jay Rothman approved substantive revisions to SYS 610, Uninsured Personal Property Loss or Damages.

On April 20th, President Jay Rothman approved technical revisions to SYS 523, Emergency Procurements and SYS 540, Non-Competitive ProcurementContracts.

See below for a brief summary of these items.

SYS 363, Change Requests of Bank and Contact Information

These revisions were effective upon approval.

The purpose of this policy is to establish standard processes for verifying student, employee, and supplier contact and bank account information when change requests are received.

Technical revisions to this policy include:

·       Replaced the term “vendor(s)” with “supplier(s)” in:

·       Section 1, Policy Purpose

·       Section 3, Scope

·       Section 5, Definition

·       Section 6, Policy Statement

·       Fixed a grammatical error in Section 4, Background.

·       Replaced the term “UW System” with “UW” in three instances in Section 6, Policy Statement.

There were no comments or concerns from the Finance and General Administration Policy Committee (FGAPC) during the FGAPC review period.

SYS 342 and SYS 920

These revisions were effective upon approval.

On February 10, 2023, the UW System Board of Regents approved revisions to Regent Policy Document (RPD) 13-5, Capital Projects Solely Managed by the UW System: Approval and Signature Authority. The revisions included the renaming of the policy as RPD 13-5, Capital Projects Solely Managed by the UW System: Approval, Signature Authority, and Reporting.

RPD 13-5 is explicitly referenced in both SYS 342 and SYS 920. These technical amendments revise the in-text references to RPD 13-5 in both policies.

·       In SYS 342, retitled references to RPD 13-5 in Section 6.A, Authority to Sign Extramural Documents and Section 7, Related Documents.

·       In SYS 920, retitled references to RPD 13-5 in Section 4, Background and Section 7, Related Documents.

Additionally, the numbering scheme for Section 6, Policy Statement of SYS 342 was updated to align with the current UW System Administrative (SYS) policy template.

No changes were made to the scheduled review dates of either policy.

There were no comments or concerns from the Finance and General Administration Policy Committee (FGAPC) during the FGAPC review period.

SYS 1035 and SYS 1035.A

The revisions to this policy and procedure will become effective on October 1, 2023.

The purpose of this policy is to establish minimum requirements and responsibilities for the inventory and management of UW IT Assets. This policy revision was developed with a group of subject matter experts representing multiple institutions across UW System including UW-Madison, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW System Administration, and UW-Whitewater. The following revisions were made to the policy:

·       Simplified the definition for IT Asset. Scoping statements within the definition were moved to Scope section of the policy, section 3. Examples of IT Assets were removed as these are covered in the Standard for the purpose of inventory requirements.

·       Added a definition for IT Inventory.

·       Added a requirement that institutions have documented processes for IT Asset lifecycle management for hardware devices, including what documentation and justification is necessary when physical assets are decommissioned.

·       Added a requirement that inventory of IT Assets must be kept up to date within a month of changes occurring.

·       Removed a provision which indicated UWSA would identify a system-wide standard IT management tool to be used by all institutions to account for their IT Assets.

·       Removed annual reporting requirement, but added a requirement that institutions are to provide inventories upon request by UWSA departments.

·       Other minor clarifications, reorganizations, and adjustments.

The following revisions were made to the procedure:

·       Procedure renamed from IT Asset Management Standard to IT Asset Inventory Standard.

·       Scope of the procedure was further limited to IT Asset inventory requirements. Previous sections for IT Asset provisioning and decommissioning, as well as reporting requirements, were removed and generalized in the policy.

·       Added a statement that IT Asset inventories do not need to be maintained in a single system. Inventories may be spread out across various inventory systems and solutions.

·       Clarified that if an IT Asset detail is not applicable for a technology or implementation, then it is not required.

·       Based on feedback received from institutions, descriptive information was provided to identify the categories of IT Assets included in the IT Inventory.

·       IT Asset details were updated to align with current technologies.

Institutional feedback, suggestions, and applicable resolutions have been summarized on this webpage.

SYS 840, Student Financial Aid in Extended Degree Program Administration

The rescission of this policy was effective upon approval.

This policy establishes the eligibility of Extended Degree Program students for student financial aid. Per the policy, Extended Degree Programs are those in which the program delivery has been customized so that it “takes into account the life situation of adult students.” In these programs, student and faculty interaction may include “on-campus or off-campus group learning experiences (weekend or evening sessions) and frequent individual conferences and tutoring session. It may also involve individual or group telephone conferences, use of cassette audio and video tapes, and traditional interaction via mail.” The programs are non-semester based and the working agreement between the student and the campus is facilitated by a contract.

The policy also provides guidelines for the administration of these programs on behalf of Extended Degree students, with particular attention given to Extended Degree Programs as both separate and distinct from courses of correspondence instruction.

There are no UW System institutions which currently offer an Extended Degree Program as defined by this policy – Extended Degree programming appears to pre-date the evolution of online and other distance education modalities as a means of providing flexible delivery modes to non-traditional students Given the absence of Extended Degree Programs within the UW System, and the advent of various distance education modalities that more effectively provide flexible programming, the University of Wisconsin System Administration (UWSA) believes that this policy is obsolete.

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

SYS 1225, General Terms and Definitions

The revisions to this policy were effective upon approval.

This policy provides a list of general terms and definitions that are used in the 1200 series of the UW System Administrative (SYS) policy set.

The update adds an official definition for the term “domestic partner” as it is used in SYS policies and procedures.

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

SYS 1277, Compensation

The revisions to this policy will be effective on July 2, 2023, which is the beginning of the first pay period of Fiscal Year 2023-24.

The purpose of this policy is to outline parameters for setting and adjusting salaries of UW System employees. This policy provides the compensation administration policy framework for the university workforce except for employees at UW-Madison.

This revision affects two provisions of SYS 1277:

·       It authorizes overtime to be calculated for Law Enforcement Officers on the basis of either hours in excess of 40 hours in one workweek, or on the basis of hours in excess of 80 hours over two workweeks.  The current policy includes the 80-hour option only for this employee group.

·       It updates the amount of the Night Differential and the Weekend Differential for University Staff and Academic staff holding a FLSA nonexempt job title.

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

SYS 610, Uninsured Personal Property Loss or Damages

The revisions to this policy were effective upon approval.

This policy establishes the standards for individuals who experience loss or damages to personal property who may be eligible to be reimbursed from University of Wisconsin System departmental funds. Proposed revisions to this policy include:

·       Updated the policy into the standard SYS policy template

·       Added Section 1. Policy Purpose, Section 2. Responsible UW System Officers, Section 3. Scope and Institutional Responsibilities, Section 5. Definitions, Section 7. Related Documents, Section 8. Policy History, and Section 9. Scheduled Review.

·       Updated the formatting of citations to State statutes throughout the policy.

·       Updated the numbering scheme to match the current SYS template.

·       In Section 4, removed language regarding the process prior to the issuance of the policy as it dates to the 1980s and is currently irrelevant.

·       In Section 4, added language to clarify how to file claims covered by the UW System self-funded insurance program.

·       In Section 6, removed initial paragraph regarding the State Collective Bargaining Contracts.

·       In the first paragraph of Section 6, removed “non-represented” as a qualifier to employees and removed the last sentence referenced the state compensation plan. Added language to state that goodwill coverage for items not address in the statutes will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

·       In the second paragraph of Section 6, replaced “UW System Risk Manager” with “institution Chief Business Officer” as this is the individual better suited to determine how campus funds are utilized.

·       In Section 6.A, increased the maximum threshold of claims that the department can authorize from $50 to $100 and increased the threshold above which of claims that must be formally filed against the University from $50 to $100. Clarified that if personal injury is involved a formal claim must be filed against the university.

·       In Section 6.B, added language to clarify the role of campus risk management, in consultation with UWSA Risk Management, in determining that there is no insurance coverage available.

·       In Section 6.B, increased the maximum amount of a claim that may be submitted against departmental funds for reimbursement from $500 to $1000.

·       In Section 6.B, changed the claim reviewer and approved from the “institution risk manager” to the “UW department head or division lead,” as this is the individual better suited to determine how department funds are utilized.

·       In Section 6.B, changed the reviewer and approver of claims exceeding $1000 to the institution’s “Chief Business Officer” and removed the institution’s risk manager and the System Risk Manager roles in reviewing the claim to determine if it should be processed through the State Claims Board and the System Risk Manager’s role in giving final approval.

·       Removed Section 6.C, which referred to collective bargaining agreements as most of these agreements have been eliminated since the last revision of the policy.

·       Retitled Section 6.C from “Procedures” to “Required Claim Documentation,” and removed the subsection titled “Approvals Required” as this is already described in prior sections.

·       In Section 6.C.II.2, clarified that the receipt, invoice, or cancelled check to substantiate the cost of repair or replacement must be “with items of like kind and/or quality.”

·       Removed Section V, Compliance as the process described is outdated.

Institution Comments and Concerns

·       UW-Madison requested that non-employees not be excluded from the scope of this policy as most goodwill payments are made to non-employees for minor losses that occur on campus where there is no negligence and therefore the matter is not covered under the Wisconsin Self-Funded Liability program and Wis. Stats. §§ 893.82 and 895.46. Non-employees were added back into the scope of the policy in section 3 and proposed revisions to remove language regarding non-employees from section 4 were not incorporated in the final policy.

·       UW-Madison requested that language be added to the first paragraph of section 6 to clarify how to consider items that are not explicitly covered by Wis. Stat. § 20.918. The following language was added: “Goodwill coverage for all other items claimed will be determined on a case-by-case basis."

SYS 523 and SYS 540

The revisions to these policies were effective upon approval.

The technical revisions to these policies are supplementary to the revisions which were approved by President Jay Rothman on March 21, 2023.

SYS 523, Emergency Procurements

·       In Section 6, Policy Statement, clarified that UW institutions other than UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee may contact the UW System Office of Procurement if a contract exceeds $500,000. This language was intended to be included in the initial revision, although it was unintentionally excluded.

SYS 540, Non-Competitive Procurement Contracts

·       In Section 5, Definitions, replaced “procurement director” with “purchasing director.”

Additionally, the following changes to SYS 540 were made after receiving feedback from the Finance and General Administration Policy Committee (FGAPC):

·       In the first paragraph of Section 6, Policy Statement, added language to clarify that all competitive procurement contracts require a justification for why the contract is non-competitive, as well as a cost review or a cost analysis.

·       In the last paragraph of Section 6, Policy Statement, removed “with private, profit making organizations” to avoid confusion when evaluating different thresholds.

EXPIRING INTERIM POLICY

SYS 100-01, Interim: Study Abroad Emergency Reserve/Contingency Fund Requirement Waiver

SYS 100-01, Interim: Study Abroad Emergency Reserve/Contingency Fund Requirement Waiver is set to expire on May 31, 2023. This interim policy will be allowed to expire and will not be renewed.