Considerations in Developing a Policy on Policies Carol Smith, Haeryon Kim, Cynthia Stengel, Robin...
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Transcript of Considerations in Developing a Policy on Policies Carol Smith, Haeryon Kim, Cynthia Stengel, Robin...
Considerations in Developinga Policy on Policies
Carol Smith, Haeryon Kim, Cynthia Stengel, Robin Cole
Fort Lewis College
Policy Working Group Embarks after ACUPA Workshop
‘See you next year, Candice, Donna, Joshua, T. Michael, Michele…’
Where to Begin?
Move the Status Quo Along? Write up the ‘oral traditions,’ write policies for
the procedures, publish all the ‘policy bibles’?
Transform the System? Envision an entirely new, “institution-wide”
approach through a policy on policies?
Policy on Policies Formal statement about WHY, HOW,
WHERE and BY WHOM the ‘law of the land’ will be written
Breakthrough Concept #1: Policies on Policies as a “Genre” ‘A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter’
Elements of Policies on Policies
Our work began with an extensive web search for policies on policies to content analyze:To establish common elementsTo identify similarities and differences within the elements
Breakthrough Concept #2: Localization ‘The process of carrying out an activity only in
a particular area of the world, or the process of changing it to make it suitable for a particular area of the world.’
Identifying Local Conditions Current policy ‘system’
Degree of decentralization (academic vs. administrative vs. student policy vs. areas with no policy)
Current policy IQ Difference between a policy and a procedure?
Awareness of external environment Laws, policies/regulations, litigation risk
management, insurance carriers, accrediting agencies
Clarity of governance Who’s the boss? And who knows it?
Identifying Local Conditions, continued Organizational culture
Academic v. administrative Personal relationship-based vs. structural Familiarity/ease with lawyers,
bureaucrats, risk managers Senior administration’s willingness to invest Political capital Budget
Exigence for change
Exigence for our Policy Reform
Reaffirmation of Accreditation…
…Ten years after the Spellings Commission Report
Localizing Insights: Our Faculty… Are both the core of the institution and special and
separate in all things administrative Are very patient with dealing with intellectual
complexity of their own making, but very impatient in dealing with complexity created by others.
Are very familiar with ‘genres’ of knowledge-making, but very unfamiliar with ‘genres’ of rule-making.
Are not very dialed in to the regulatory environment of higher education, and are often incredulous that the government would have anything to say about the academic core of the institution
Are deeply immersed in their disciplines, not their institutions, so demand ‘easy’ button for managing organizational details
Fort Lewis College’s Policy Library https://
wiki.fortlewis.edu/display/POL/Policy+Library+Home
For the Techies Out There… Our library is built on Confluence version 5.4.2
with a standard Apache/Tomcat configuration on Redhat Linux.
To create the skin (look/feel), we are running Brikit Theme Press v 1.1.4
Results So Far
Harsh medicine on Trustees’ plenary powers and President’s delegated powers
Creation of an AAUP chapter
Creation of a Faculty Senate Policy Committee 35 academic policy gaps filled this year All known policies published in policy library in ‘all
their glory’