The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (University) establishes administrative policies to align operations, set behavioral expectations across the University, and communicate policy roles and responsibilities. Administrative policies may be established if they:
- support the University’s mission and strategic positioning goals;
- apply institution-wide;
- impact a substantial number of individuals within the University population;
- promote consistency, efficiency, and effectiveness and/or mitigate or manage significant institutional risk; and
- originate from the authority of the Board of Regents’ policies, including specific delegated authority to manage the institution or comply with federal or state laws, rules, or regulations.
University-wide policies are owned by a responsible office under the authority of a university vice president. The policy owner reviews related existing policies to determine if they are adequate to the intended purpose. If not, the policy owner proceeds to the policy development and planning phases. Due to the open and representative nature of Faculty Senate policy approval, this process will be waived for bylaws changes, resolutions, and communications initiated and approved by the Faculty Senate and faculty body at large with the exception of administrative policies that involve collaboration between the Faculty Senate and Executive Vice President and Provost's office and that require the approval of the President.
The President’s Cabinet has authorized the University Policy Committee (UPC), a standing committee representing diverse campus constituencies, to advise the owner(s) of university-wide policies during the development and review stages. The UPC reviews all policies that require the President’s signature.
The UPC provides Policy Owner Resources on this website to assist in policy development. The Policy Development Checklist is designed to assist the policy owner in determining the University’s need for the proposed policy, whether the risk or value is sufficient to warrant the dedication of resources needed for policy development and management, and whether the purpose and goal of the proposed policy may be accomplished in a different way. During the development process, policy owners may contact the University Policy Office for guidance with the checklist or other support.
The office responsible for the policy is to draft the full document, consulting with identified stakeholders and assisted by the Office of the General Counsel, if appropriate. The fully-drafted policy is reviewed by the UPC before it is submitted to the campus for University Policy Committee a 30-day public comment period. The policy is revised as needed to incorporate public comments and, barring major substantive changes, submitted to the UPC for final review and recommendation to the President.
Note on Expedited Process
Under special circumstances, policy owners may request an expedited process by contacting the chair of the University Policy Committee (UPC) through the University Policy Office. Special circumstances may include a change in federal or state law, a significant and immediate financial opportunity, or a major institutional risk.
Electronic Links in Policies
Policies often contain links to online resources. Sometimes the links can become unusable due to website address changes and other factors. When modifications to policies are limited to updating links, the policy is not required to be routed through the formal policy approval process. Updated links on policies can be submitted to the UPC mailbox: policycommittee@unlv.edu.
Minor Changes to An Existing Policy
Minor changes may be made to a policy without the policy going through the entire University Policy Committee (UPC) policy review process if the change:
- is not substantive; and
- does not modify the intent, meaning or focus of the policy.
The decision as to whether those criteria are met will be made by the UPC. If a proposed change is determined to meet both criteria, the revision will go through an expedited process of review by the UPC. If a proposed change requires review by the Office of General Counsel, the policy owner will be notified to complete that prior to the review by the UPC.