Policy: Policy Approval and Maintenance

Document Number: 9.001
Title: Policy Approval and Maintenance
Effective Date: 11/13/2023
Revised Dated: N/A

POLICY

Policies and procedures are the structured processes by which an organization operates.

Policies reflect the “rules” governing the implementation of the campus processes. Procedures are the “guidelines” which represent an implementation of policy. Procedures should evolve as new tools emerge, new processes are designed, or the risks associated with an area change in response to internal or external environmental changes. Policies and procedures shall have campus-wide applications.

The Executive Cabinet maintains all policies for River Parishes Community College (RPCC) and facilitates the creation, review, and approval of all institutional policies.

RPCC uses a standard policy format and a uniform review and approval process for policies to improve communication, promote administrative consistency and efficiency, and ensure compliance with pertinent state and federal laws as well as accreditation requirements.

Policies are published in electronic format and is available online at https://www.rpcc.edu/about-us/policies-procedures/index. This online repository serves as the official version of all policies and procedures.

Departments may not have separate websites with duplicate versions of the policies. All websites and paper documents should reference the policies available at the web address noted.

Policies are organized by broad administrative function, and the highest- ranking leader responsible for a particular policy category is considered to be the “responsible officer” for the development, authorization, and implementation of that unit’s policies and procedures. All policies are listed numerically by category. The categories include the following:

1. Academics
2. Student Services
3. Workforce
4. Facilities
5. Finance
6. Human Resources
7. Information Technology (IT)
8. Public Relations and Communications (PR)
9. Administrative

Responsible officers ensure that their policies are up-to-date and revised when necessary to reflect current policy, practice and/or procedures. Each policy should be reviewed by the originating unit and revised as necessary at least every five years. The Executive Cabinet will monitor the last date of revision of all policies and will schedule a policy for review when the last revision date is more than five years old.

Any time an employee notices a need for new policy or updates to existing policies, they may suggest recommended modifications to any policy by contacting the “responsible officer” over the category. All policies must be created or modified using Microsoft Word, with track changes enabled. When revisions have been made by the responsible officer, the policy document should be sent to the Executive Cabinet for scheduling of a review and dissemination of the proposed policy to the Leadership Committee members.

Official policies will be maintained and secured in a Policies folder on the RPCC OneDrive

Approval Process

All policies shall be approved by the Executive Cabinet. New policies or edits to existing policies should be submitted for review by the Executive Cabinet. Policies will be entered into “New Business” for a review period. The policy will be advanced to “Old Business” for the next scheduled meeting for approval but may be tabled as necessary until the committee is prepared for approval. With approval from the Executive Cabinet, a policy may be advanced for approval from New to Old Business without waiting for the next scheduled meeting.

The Chancellor may approve or reject any policy/procedure decisions made by the Executive Cabinet.

A newly developed policy should first be forwarded electronically to the Executive Cabinet for the purposes of logging, applying formatting consistency, and the assignment of the next sequential number in a specific category. This initial review will also include the determination that a new policy is needed, or if an existing policy might need expansion. Additionally, a review of the LCTCS System Policies and Procedures will be made to find similar policies that may impact RPCC processes.

Depending on the complexity of the modification, or campus interest in the policy, implementation/revision may be redirected to another college committee or working group for feedback.

Once approved, the Executive Cabinet will ensure that finalized policies are published on the Policy webpage and appropriately disseminated to the college community.