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Governance Minutes ArchiveII. Policy and Program Review and Approval Process
2.2 II. Policy and Program Review and Approval Process A. The University Commissions formulate new policies or policy revisions and propose new or revised programs, either on their own initiative or by direction of the President or the University Council. B. In preparing the case for a new policy or program, each Commission shall keep constituencies (and also, as appropriate, other Commissions, the Faculty Senate and the Student Government Association) sufficiently well informed that relevant advice and counsel from outside the Commis- sion proper can be brought to bear at the policy (program) formulation stage. It is the responsibility of individual Commission members, mainly by means of their cross-representational affiliations, to accom- plish this. C. Commissions shall prepare policy (program) proposals in standard Resol- ution form. These Resolutions shall be worded so as to provide, along with any accompanying explanation or annotation, sufficient information and background upon which to base subsequent debate of the issues in- volved. Policy (Program) Resolutions shall be Titled and shall carry the name of the forwarding Commission and the date of Commission ap- proval. Resolutions shall be forwarded to the Secretary of the Univer- sity Council to be placed on the agenda, and simultaneously, copies shall be sent by THE ORIGINATING Commission to all members of the Uni- versity Council, as well as to the editors of the COLLEGIATE TIMES and SPECTRUM and the President of the Faculty Senate. This distribution is to serve as official notification of the proposed policy (program) con- sideration, not just for individual members, but for all offices and governance bodies represented on University Council, including the SGA and Faculty Senate. Resolutions shall be clearly differentiated from Commission minutes. D. The Secretary of University Council shall distribute copies of Commis- sion minutes to all members of the University Council for routine re- view, noting said minutes on the agenda. When minutes come before Council for acceptance, the Council will verify the Commission deci- sions regarding which of the items brought to it are policy (program) items; those items in the minutes which Council considers policy (pro- gram) items shall be returned to the appropriate Commission for resubmission in the Resolution form. E. On receipt of a Resolution from a Commission, the University Council shall take the following steps in the review process: 1. The Secretary shall place the Resolution on the agenda for the next succeeding Council meeting,(1) under New Business, marked "First Reading." Extra copies of the Resolution shall be available at the meeting for the convenience of all present. 2. Council may discuss but shall take no action on a Resolution at "First Reading," unless by consent of three-fourths of the members present. However, the Chairperson will call for deferral requests at this time. 3. At the next succeeding meeting of the University Council, the Re- solution shall appear on the agenda under Old Business, with the date of the First Reading indicated as well as its deferral status. The Chairperson shall again call for deferral requests. If no deferral is requested, the University Council shall act on the Re- solution at that meeting. 4. If a request for deferral of the Resolution is made at the time of First or Second Reading, it shall be honored for a time period not exceeding six weeks from the date of the First Reading. However, Council may over-ride a request for deferral by a vote of three- fourths of the membership present. The Resolution, with date of First Reading, will continue to appear on the agenda throughout the period of deferral. Deferral can occur only once for a given Re- solution. 5. During the deferral period, the Faculty Senate and other governance units may forward recommendations relating to the Resolution to the Secretary of the University Council, and those recommendations will be distributed to Council members with the agenda for the next suc- ceeding meeting. 6. At the end of six weeks after the date of First Reading, the defer- ral period ends and the Resolution is placed on the Council agenda under Old Business. Subsequent Council action may be approval, disapproval, referral, amendment, or tabling. 7. If the Council refers a resolution to the originating body (or to the Secretary) for editorial changes or to incorporate amendments adopted during Council debate, the edited resolution will be placed on the agenda of the next Council meetings for consideration under Old Business, NOT subject to deferral. 8. If the Council refers a resolution to the originating body for other than editorial changes or to incorporate amendments adopted during Council debate, the resolution will be considered a "new" resolution when it is resubmitted for Council consideration. That is, it will be placed on the agenda marked "First Reading" as in (1) above, and is subject to deferral. ---------------- 1 No Policy (Program) Resolutions will be placed on the University Coun- cil agenda for First Reading after the first meeting of Council in the month of April each year, until the first meeting of the succeeding Fall Quarter. This is to avoid overtaxing the policy (program) review capabilities of the Governance System, operating within the prescribed six-week time frame, close to the end of the regular academic session. The University Council may accept resolutions for consideration after this deadline by a vote of three-fourths of the membership present.
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Last modified on: Tuesday, 25-Sep-2001 13:56:18 EDT