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Edit an Existing Policy (Non-substantial Changes)

An individual acting on behalf of the responsible office or responsible executive for a university policy can work directly with the University Policy Office to make minor changes that are considered routine policy maintenance. No additional university review process is needed for these kinds of changes.

 

What qualifies as a non-substantial change?

Non-substantial changes are routine, minor changes that do not alter the meaning or scope of the policy. Examples include updating organizational names, individual titles, items listed in the resources section, and contact information, as well as corrections for broken links, typographical errors, and formatting issues.

Timeline and process overview

Allow five business days for the University Policy Office to make the updates.

Step

 Responsible Party Task Recommended Turnaround Times
(Goal: five business days)
1 Unit Provide high-level description of non-substantial changes to University Policy Office 1 day
2 University Policy Office Review high-level description to verify whether the changes qualify as non-substantial and respond to unit accordingly 1 day
3 Unit Submit non-substantial changes to University Policy Office 1 day
4 University Policy Office Review changes; if non-substantial, make changes and publish updated policy 2-4 days

Detailed steps

  1. Submit request to the University Policy Office (UPO)
    The individual acting on behalf of the responsible office or responsible executive provides the University Policy Office (UPO) with a brief summary of the non-substantial changes that need to be made to an existing policy.
  2. Wait for the UPO's assessment
    The UPO assesses the request to verify that the changes would be considered non-substantial. The UPO typically provides a editable copy of the policy to the requestor, to annotate with the changes.
  3. Send the non-substantial changes to the UPO
    The individual provides the annotated copy of the policy to the UPO. If the updated policy needs to be published on a certain date (or time), or if the individual wants to review the changes prior to publication, the individual specifies these details. 
  4. The UPO reviews the requested changes to verify that they are non-substantial; if yes, the UPO makes the changes and publishes the updated policy
    • If the UPO's assessment is that the changes are substantial, the UPO contacts the individual to indicate that the process for updating a policy with substantial revisions must be followed instead.
    • Additional editing may be conducted by the UPO to comply with university formatting and editorial style conventions.  
    • The UPO notifies the individual when the updated policy is published.
    • The UPO does not make announcements about policies that have been updated with non-substantial changes.