Policy Renewal Project

In early 2013, the president directed the Secretariat to undertake a thorough review of university policies and the framework within which university policies are managed. The Policy Renewal Project, which was formally approved in the summer of 2013, was designed to achieve these objectives. The project was originally intended to run from 1 September 2013 to 30 September 2018. However, the first two years of the project has demonstrated that more time is needed in order to enable careful consideration and meaningful consultation. So the project end date will be extended by two years to 30 September 2020.

The Policy Renewal Project has two overarching goals:

1. To review the framework within which university policies are managed and to make improvements where necessary; and

2. To review and update the existing policy library with the intention of improving the clarity, consistency and relevance of university policies.

The processes at the centre of the policy management framework are contained in Policy 1, which governs the initiation and review of university policies. The framework also includes the people and processes supporting policy initiation and review, communicating changes to university policies, providing policy interpretation, and managing the library of current and prior versions of policies. Each of these pieces of the framework will be examined in order to identify opportunities for improvement.

In addition to the policy management framework, the Secretariat will facilitate the review of the library of existing university policies. Changes which will be considered include:

• “housekeeping” updates, such as changes to formatting, position titles, names of units or legislative references;
• in-depth review and substantive revisions to content;
• addition of new policies;
• cancellation of policies which are no longer relevant; and
• amalgamation of policies with similar subject matter.

Please note, guidelines and procedures will also be reviewed to the extent necessary to maintain consistency with revised policies; however, a thorough review is not currently within the scope of this project.

For information on how to participate in this process, please see below.

Effective January, 2017, the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel were divided into two distinct offices.  At the time of the division, the Policy Renewal Project (the Project) was put on hold in order to allow the offices time to adjust to the split.

The Project is back, with the Secretariat continuing to manage the library of policies, procedures and guidelines across the University. 

The Secretariat has had a chance to review the schedule created last year and has made some adjustments in light of lessons learned.  We realize that the Project Plan will continue to be revised on at least an annual basis in order to account for progress made, requests from the campus community for the review of policies outside of the schedule, and respect for the processes supporting policy initiation and review.  Meaningful consultation will always play a role in the Project.

We are currently in Year 4 of the Project.  The following policies are being initiated/reviewed:

• Policy 2 – Bulletin Boards, Temporary Signs, and Notices
• Policy 6 – Vacation - Staff
• Policy 7 – Gift Acceptance (Mandatory Review)
• Policy 11 – Risk Management (Mandatory Review)
• Policy 14 – Pregnancy and Parental Leave
• Policy 15 – Bookings – Use and Reservation of University Facilities for Activities not regularly timetabled
• Policy 30 – Employment of Graduate Teaching Assistants
• Policy 32 – Pets on University Property
• Policy 33 – Ethical Behaviour
• Policy 42 – Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence
• Policy 44 – Research Centres and Institutes (Mandatory Review)
• Policy 54 – Definition of Staff
• Policy 55 – Survey Administration
• Policy 56 – Vacations and Vacation Pay for Non-regular Faculty Members, including Graduate and Undergraduate Students with Academic Appointments
• Policy 64 – Use of Proprietary Software
• Policy 67 – Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Policy 70 – Student Petitions and Grievances
• Policy 71 – Student Discipline
• Policy 72 – Student Appeals

Due to the high volume of policies currently under review, and the strong likelihood that many of these reviews will carry forward into Year 5, the following policies are scheduled for review in Year 5:

• Policy 46 – Information Management (Mandatory Review)
• Policy 61 – Religious Accommodation
• Policy 65 – Equality in Employment
• Policy 73 – Intellectual Property

For the full list of existing university policies, please follow this link: Policies, procedures & guidelines.

Changes to the policy library will be undertaken in accordance with Policy 1, which provides opportunities for stakeholder representatives to engage in the review and approval process based on the classification of the policy under review. See Policy 1 for more information.

Please contact your stakeholder representatives to comment on university policies under review or more generally. You are also welcome to submit suggestions, comments and questions to uw.policy@uwaterloo.ca. Everyone’s input is welcome and important to ensuring the success of this project.