Policy on Administrative Policies

This Policy is intended to formalize the process by which institutional administrative Policies, including related Standards and Procedures (Policy Documents), are developed, approved, reviewed, published, updated, communicated, and retired (Policy Management).

All administrative policies are subject to this policy. Academic Affairs oversees all academic policies.

This Policy ensures compliance with applicable laws and regulations, enhances RISD's mission, promotes operational efficiencies, and reduces institutional risk. The guidelines below are developed to shift the College to a more proactive policy development and risk management model, promote consistency, efficiency, and transparency in College's Policy Management, and reflect best practices in higher education Policy Management.

• Policy: a governing directive that mandates or guides actions to ensure compliance with the law or aligns with efforts to reduce institutional risk
• Procedures: institutional or departmental procedures or guidelines that describe Policy implementation practices.
• Policy Coordinator: the designated individual to oversee the orderly and accurate system of proposing, developing, promulgating, and maintaining administrative policies. The Coordinator is responsible for managing the standard document creation process and assisting all campus stakeholders to understand and utilize the process and the resulting institutional administrative policies.
• Issuing Office: the office designated for oversight of the policy that falls within its areas of responsibility.
• Responsible Officer: a Cabinet-level officer who heads the Responsible Office.
• Individuals/Offices Required for Review and Changes: the mandatory reviewing bodies the Responsible Officer must consult with when making substantive revisions to a policy.
• Subject-Matter Expert: someone with specialized knowledge in a specific area.
• President’s Cabinet: composed of the senior leadership of the College, including the provost, senior vice presidents, vice presidents, RISD Museum director, and Special Assistant to the President; members are appointed by the President and change over time
• Policy Committee (PC): a group of three standing members: the General Counsel, the Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, and the Policy Coordinator. Responsible for reviewing and approving institutional policies.
• Policy Advisory Group (PAG): a group consisting of four standing members – the Policy Coordinator, the Assistant General Counsel, the Director of Employment, and the Director of Risk, Emergency Planning and RISD Property Holdings – and no more than six members representing a cross-section of the RISD community appointed by the PC for terms of two years each. See PAG Charge for information regarding group composition and responsibilities.
• Substantive Revision: significant changes to a policy’s content, mandates, or principles that materially change the intent, directive, scope, impacts, and/or substance.
• Technical Revision: a policy revision that does not materially change the intent or directive of the policy, such as changes due to updating contact information, correcting links, typographical amendments, clarifying language, changes to legal code numbering, or a change of the Responsible Office. The need for Technical Revisions does not require PC review and approval but requires a Campuswide Notification Period.
• Campuswide Notification Period: a notification period before issuance of a Policy that includes the applicable areas of the RISD Community and encompasses the calendar days in a specified duration. Typically, Campuswide Notification Periods are 15 days for an existing policy undergoing a Technical Revision or Compliance with Law Revision.
• Effective Date: a date on which the version of the Policy is first enforceable.

Technical Revisions to Policy

Compliance with Law or Minor Revisions

If the Policy Committee (PC) determines that proposed revisions are minor in nature and either required by regulatory changes or necessary to conform to current practices, an abbreviated policy revision process will be used. Individuals wishing to propose a technical revision to a policy must submit their request to the Policy Coordinator via the Policy Proposal Form, and all drafts must be redlined in the official RISD Policy Template.

Policy revisions required by regulatory changes go to the Policy Advisory Group (PAG) for notification purposes, and a Campuswide Notification Period must be completed prior to the effective date.

Corrections

Without requesting written approval of each change, the Policy Coordinator may revise affected policies to correct departmental or other unit names, position titles, grammatical errors, typographical errors, Uniform Resource Locator (or URL) links, or other similar occurrences.

New or Substantive Revisions to Policy

Policy Development

Individuals wishing to propose a new or substantive revision to a policy must submit their request to the Policy Coordinator via the Policy Proposal Form, and all drafts must be in the official RISD Policy Template along with all supporting procedures or resource documents. All requests must be reviewed by the policy’s Responsible Officer prior to submission. The Policy Committee (PC) reserves the authority to deem a policy proposal unnecessary or redundant, and if so, the Policy Coordinator will communicate the decision to the Responsible Officer. The Policy Coordinator will work with the Responsible Officer, subject-matter experts and individuals representing key areas impacted by the policy to develop or revise a preliminary draft.

The Policy Advisory Group (PAG) will assess and provide recommendations pertaining to policy revisions, the development of new policies, and the publication of administrative policies for RISD, including the RISD Museum, RISD Continuing Education, and all who utilize RISD facilities and services. The Office of the General Counsel reviews the policy for legal sufficiency, as necessary. The policy draft is refined and prepared for subsequent review.

Approval and Distribution of Policy

New and substantively revised policies that are not regulatory in nature will be shared with the President’s Cabinet prior to the campuswide notification. Upon final approval by the PC, policies are announced on the Policy website and broadly communicated to the campus in alignment with the campuswide notification period prior to the effective date.

The Issuing Office is responsible for policy implementation and for notifying the Policy Coordinator of any proposed changes in practice that will require a policy change prior to implementing such a change. In addition, the Policy Coordinator may ask the issuing office to review applicable policies and report any necessary changes periodically.

Manager and Supervisor Responsibilities

All employees with supervisory responsibility, or their designees, must:

• inform their employees of new policies or changes to existing policies;
• ensure all related departmental processes, procedures, and documents are updated to reflect new or revised policies and;
• refer to the online version on the Policy website to ensure they refer to the most recent versions.

General Policy Management

Retiring or Consolidating an Existing Policy

Special circumstances may cause the retirement of an administrative policy or the consolidation of individual policies into a new policy. The Policy Coordinator will work with the responsible areas and the PAG to craft a new policy as appropriate and/or will issue an announcement of the withdrawal in alignment with the Campuswide Notification Period. Policies no longer applicable may be withdrawn by informing the Policy Coordinator, who will advance the withdrawal through the PC for consideration. Retired or withdrawn policies will be archived and are available upon request by email to policy@risd.edu.

Policy Archive

The Policy Coordinator maintains an archive of historical versions of administrative policies that are available upon request.

Policy Sanctions

RISD faculty, staff, and students who engage in activities that violate this policy will be referred to the appropriate office for corrective action.

Additionally, RISD reserves the right to review alleged violations of this policy in conjunction with other appropriate offices and under other applicable College policies and procedures.

This policy was created on: 11/18/2018

This policy was last reviewed/modified on: 11/12/2024

Next scheduled review: 11/12/2026

Issuing Office

Finance & Administration

General Counsel

Responsible Officer

Senior Vice President, Finance & Administration

General Counsel

Individuals/offices required for review and changes

Policy Coordinator

President's Cabinet

Provost

Vice President, Human Resources

Provost