Policy on Policies

Policy Owner (s): Dean of the School of Dentistry

Policy Contact: Chief of Staff

POLICY STATEMENT

Effective policies and procedures serve to align operations, set behavioral expectations across the school, mitigate risk, and communicate policy roles and responsibilities and require or prohibit specific actions of faculty, staff, or students, as well as external individuals who use University resources or services, as appropriate.

A policy provides a framework, common format, review and approval process, and roles and responsibilities for the adoption, review, revision and dissemination of School of Dentistry policies and procedures. 

All administrative, school-wide policies must be approved by the School of Dentistry Council of Chairs (COC) before they go into effect. 

Policy owners are responsible for ensuring that monitoring compliance with policies occurs. 

REASON FOR POLICY

The policy promotes: 

• consistent definitions, process and format for policies and procedures
• the appropriate level, scope and frequency of oversight to unit-level policies and procedures
• clarity, transparency and shared understanding
• addresses a process that is not already covered by another policy

A policy on establishing new policies assists the School of Dentistry in maintaining compliance with accreditation standards and ensures an environment of institutional effectiveness.

PROCEDURES

Procedures for Initiating a New or Revised Policy

FORMS/INSTRUCTIONS

There are no forms/instructions associated with this policy.

APPENDICES/LINKS

Administrative Policy Plan - guide to writing a policy

Administrative Policy Communications Plan

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

There are no frequently asked questions associated with this policy.

DEFINITIONS

Policy

A collection of related principles and guidelines that explain “why” an organization does what it does. Policies sit in the background and define the rules that should not be broken when following the processes and procedures built on top. 

Guideline

An indication or outline of policy or conduct

Process

A sequence of actions and decisions that describe “what” happens to achieve an outcome. Processes can fit within or across organizational boundaries (functions, geographies, business units, etc.) and define the work that humans or IT systems perform. 

Procedure

Instructions describing “how” to complete a certain step in a process. Highly detailed procedures are often called work instructions. 

Standard

A “definition of done” that sets the level of quality for work defined in a procedure or process. Standards can also set boundaries around the time resources consumed when completing work.

University-Wide Policies

Per the University of Minnesota’s Policy Library definition, University-Wide Policies include Board of Regents and Administrative Level Policies: Board of Regents Policies serve as umbrella policies of the University of Minnesota to provide high-level guiding principles and direction for the administration to implement; Administrative Policies are developed by the administration and approved by the President’s policy committee on behalf of the President of the University. Administrative policies provide specific rules and provisions, and set expectations for administrative operation of the University.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Chief of Staff, Office of the Dean

The Chief of Staff, and his/her designee, will maintain the School of Dentistry's policies web page, provide oversight and guidance on policy governance, and will serve as a point of contact with the University’s Policy Programs Office.

Policy Owner (s)

The policy owner is the administrative individual who takes responsibility for, and oversees, implementation and compliance of a given policy or procedure. The policy owner will be responsible for overseeing the policy development or revision plan. 

Dean

The Chief of Staff reports to the Dean to provide oversight and guidance on the efforts related to policy review and/or creation with the School of dentistry. Additionally, the Dean will work to resolve policy issues in instances where there is a lack of agreement among stakeholders and/or the policy owners where the approving governance body, the Council of Chairs, cannot come to agreement. 

RELATED INFORMATION

There is no related information associated with this policy. 

HISTORY

CONTACTS