September University Policy Distribution and SYS Policy Approvals

Friday, September 20, 2024

September University Policy Distribution

The September university policy distribution contains five (5) revised policies, one (1) new policy and one (1) new procedure.

Revised Policies:

New Policy:

New Procedure:

Click on the link above to view the draft and ensure that your feedback is captured for review during the post-comment period. Comments can include attachments, including word documents and PDFs.

Comments on SYS 650, SYS 1037, SYS 1037.A, and SYS 1275 are due by 5:00pm on Friday, October 11. 

Comments on SYS 121,  SYS 1310, and SYS 1315 are due by 5:00pm on Tuesday, November 19. 

DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 121, Professional Licensure and Occupational Certification Programs: Determining Student Location

These policy revisions will be effective upon signature by the president.

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • In accordance with federal regulations, universities are required to disclose state-specific professional licensure and occupational certification information to students or prospective students based on the state in which a student is located. This policy is necessary to provide a general structure under which universities shall determine a student’s location. Adherence to federal regulations is a condition of Title IV eligibility. The following policy revisions were made:
    • Updated the policy title to include “and Occupational Certification.”
    • Throughout the policy, language was updated to reflect the current state of the regulation, as the policy was originally drafted when the regulations were new.
    • Throughout the policy, replaced the term “institutions” with “universities.”
    • Throughout the policy, replaced “professional licensure” and “professional or occupational licensure” with “professional licensure and occupational certification.”
    • In Section 5, a definition for “Time of Enrollment” was added.
    • In Section 5, the definitions of “Location” and “Professional Licensure or Certification Program” were revised and expanded upon.
DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 1037, Information Security: IT Disaster Recovery

These policy revisions will become effective 6 months after approval.

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • This policy establishes the minimum requirements for Information Technology (IT) Disaster Recovery (DR) efforts for University of Wisconsin (UW) institutions and is designed to assist in executing recovery processes in response to a disaster or significant IT disruption. The following revisions were made to the policy:
    • Specific elements required for institutions to incorporate into their IT DR plans have been moved into an accompanying Standard. These elements were further grouped and additional context provided to assist institutions in interpretation.
    • Added a requirement to review and update IT DR plans annually to reflect changes in technology and business requirements.
    • Adjusted specific requirements related to frequency, validation, and testing of IT backups for High Impact Systems. This includes:
      • Requiring all High Impact Systems to be backed up in alignment with the institutional operational needs and Recovery Point Objectives, not to exceed 28 days.
      • Verification of backups for High Impact Systems on a quarterly basis to ensure no data has been missed during the backup process.
      • A recommendation to perform full recovery tests for each High Impact System on an annual basis to ensure backup and recovery processes work as intended.
    • Added a requirement to document all backup and testing activities.
    • Added a requirement to evaluate, upon activation of the IT DR plan, the effectiveness of the institution’s recovery efforts and update DR plans to address any gaps or weaknesses identified.
    • General enhancements to policy purpose and background to reflect the importance of IT DR efforts.
    • Updated formatting and layout of the policy.

The following resources were used to inform these revisions:

  • Interim campus and stakeholder feedback.
  • Recommendations and observations resulting from a 2022 Internal Audit of Information Technology Disaster Recovery processes throughout UW System.
  • 2021 IS Actions Memo, Disaster Recovery Effort (Now Rescinded).
  • NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, specifically IT Disaster Recovery components spread across several areas of the framework, particularly under the “Recovery” function.
  • NIST SP 800-171, which outlines specific requirements related to IT DR within the broader context of protecting data on non-federal systems.
DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 1275, Recruitment Policies

These policy revisions will be effective upon signature by the President.

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • This update makes revisions to the following policy sections:
    • Section 6.B- Changes the required questions for the final candidate to instead require a mandatory review of the candidate’s personnel file for any previous state or UWS employment.
    • Section 6.C- is updated to update the number of reference checks required and to specify that reference checks will be completed by the new automated reference checking system.  It also specifies when the reference check process may be waived.
    • Section 6.D- is updated to replace human reference questioning with a personnel file review.
    • Section 6.E- is eliminated.
    • Appendix 2 is updated to be consistent with the new policy requirements.
    • Appendix 3 is eliminated.
    • Appendix 4 is updated to be consistent with the new reference check criteria established in the previous update, and to reflect the use and functionality of the new automated reference checking process.
DRAFT REVISED POLICY

SYS 1310, Copyrightable Materials Ownership, Use, and Control

These policy revisions will be effective upon approval by the president.

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • The purpose of this policy is to clearly define copyright ownership for the faculty, staff, students, and affiliates who use the UW system’s facilities or act under contract with the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. The policy recognizes and codifies the System’s longstanding commitment to the academic tradition of assigning copyrights to the creators of scholarly, academic, and artistic works.
    • The policy has been updated throughout to fit current UWSA formatting standards and template. This included the addition of Section 1. Policy Purpose, Section 2. Responsible UW System Officers, Section 3. Scope and Institutional Responsibilities, Section 5. Definitions, Section 7. Related Documents, Section 8. Policy History, and Section 9. Scheduled Review.
    • In the title, removed the word “Instructions.”
    • Section 4 has been shortened to provide a brief history of the need for this policy and to unify the language of the SYS 1300 series policies.
    • Section 6.A has been redefined to determine copyright ownership based on category of work and no longer the type of material.
    • Section 6.B now discusses conditions of copyright transfer, and the policy no longer lays out developmental conditions for copyrightable instructional materials.
    • Section 6.C now lays out a standard for copyright ownership of jointly authored works.
    • Section 6.D was added to include the following definitions for Institutional Work:
      • Disposition: UW System units most closely associated with the authorship of Institutional Work may authorize use of the work. The disposition of Institutional Work within the UW System shall be managed by the president, chancellor, or designee.
      • Notice and Registration: Institutional Work that is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or that includes a copyright notice should identify “The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System” as the copyright owner.
      • Release of Institutional Rights: Authors of Institutional Works may request that the UW System transfer ownership to the Author. The UW System institution where the work is created may release its rights in copyrighted works to the As of 09/18/2024 Author(s) via a written agreement upon a determination that the transfer will not 1) conflict with an obligation to a Sponsor or third party; 2) violate any legal obligations of or to the UW System or Institution; 3) limit appropriate UW System use of the materials; 4) create an unmanageable conflict of interest for the Author; or 5) otherwise conflict with the UW System institution’s goals or principles.
    • Section 6.E was added to lay out terms in which UW System may license uses of or transfer copyright in an Institutional Work or to acquire copyrights.
  • See the Frequently Asked Questions- SYS 1310, Copyrightable Materials Ownership, Use, and Control page for more information on the purpose of the proposed changes and additional clarification.
DRAFT REVISED POLICIES

SYS 1315, Patents and Inventions

These policy revisions will become effective upon signature by the president.

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • The purpose of this policy is to establish the applicable UW System policies with respect to inventions and outline the responsibilities, privileges, and options of faculty, staff, and students when they have made an invention.
    • Number schematics were updated to reflect the current standardized template used for UW System Administrative policies.
    • Throughout the policy, references to SYS 346 were updated to SYS 1315.
    • In the second paragraph of section 6.A, language was updated to reflect that researchers have multiple options to disclose intellectual property they feel has potential commercial value.
      • “…at their option of XXX”
    • In section 7, references to SYS 190 were updated to SYS 1305.
    • In section 7, references to SYS 191 were updated to SYS 1310.
DRAFT NEW POLICY

SYS 650, Public Records Management Roles and Responsibilities 

This policy will be effective July 1, 2025.

Summary of Policy and Policy Revisions

  • To maintain accountability and to preserve the trust the public and students place in UW System, records must be maintained legally and ethically as evidence of our work, decisions, and behavior. Like all state agencies, UW System must adhere to Wis. Stat. § 16.61, which governs the length of time public records must be kept and how these records must be disposed of or transferred to university archives. Unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction of records constitutes a serious breach of public trust and risks legal and reputational harm to UW System. This policy outlines the roles and responsibilities for the proper management, disposition, and preservation of UW System records in order to comply with these requirements.
  • Per Wis. Stat. § 16.61, all employees of the state of Wisconsin are obligated to manage records according to records schedules approved by the Wisconsin Public Records Board. However, most employees are unaware of the records schedules that apply to their records, and therefore are not in compliance with this obligation. The key requirement of this policy is for units to create, maintain, and adhere to a unit records management plan. The unit records management plan:
    • Identifies the types of records created and managed by their staff and all associated records schedules. o Identifies how those types of records are organized and ensures that all pertinent records are stored centrally instead of on individual drives, devices, or accounts.
  • After initial creation, employees will have unit records management plans available for their use which will increase awareness and overall compliance with records management obligations. It will also significantly decrease the time and effort of each individual employee to meet these obligations. Records management plans will help to secure records by identifying those records that require additional protections due to containing personally identifiable or other confidential information required by statute. Records management plans will also be greatly useful with preserving records management functions with staff turnover.
DRAFT NEW PROCEDURE

SYS 1037.A, Information Security: IT Disaster Recovery Plan Standard

This procedure will become effective 6 months after approval.

Summary of Procedure

SYS Policy Approvals

On September 10, Interim Vice President Johannes Britz approved technical revisions to SYS 102.A, New Academic Degree Programs, Changes to Academic Degree Programs, and Additional SYS 102 Items. 

On September 12, President Rothman approved the interim policy action, SYS 100-10, Interim: Institutional Statements.

Please see below for a brief summary of these items.

SYS 102.A, New Academic Degree Programs, Changes to Academic Degree Programs, and Additional SYS 102 Items

Summary of Procedure and Procedure Revisions

  • The purpose of these procedures is to provide information on planning a new academic degree program; making changes to an existing academic degree program; and additional items covered by SYS 102.
  • In section 3, proposing technical changes to:
    • Add the definitions for “fully distance education”, “in-person”, and “mixed modality”. These definitions are referenced in section 4.E.IX and may be referenced elsewhere in the procedures document and guidance.
    • Amend the definition of “suspend” to align the definition with the long-standing provision of SYS 102, section 3.4.3 and 3.4.4.
  • In section 4, proposing technical changes as follows:
    • In section 4.E.IX., to add the word “degree” throughout the section, so as to read “academic degree programs.” This change provide consistency in verbiage across the policy and procedure document.
    • In section 4.E.IX., to replace the phrase “adding or eliminating distance” with “changing the mode”.
    • In section 4.E.IX., to add the phrase “adding distance education as a modality,” replacing “adding distance delivery”.
    • In section 4.E.IX., to add a sentence following, “Note that UW’s “Mixed Modality” designation and “Fully Distance Education” designation align with HLC’s definition of a distance education program.”
    • In section 4.E.IX.1.e. and 4.E.IX.1.f., to add verbiage clarifying the modality definitions offered to the committee in February 2024, as requested by the universities. The added text provides clarifications regarding the formats included within each category and adds delivery flags that will facilitate data submission by the universities and the utility of data that are maintained in the CDR.
    • In section 4.E.IX.2., proposing the addition of verbiage, as requested by the university, to affirm and acknowledge that each university may create sub-categories within the reporting categories established in this procedure.
    • In section 4.G, proposing a technical change to align the commencement of the monitoring review period to align to the period articulated in the long-standing provision of SYS 102, section 6.3.2.1.

Committee Comments and Concerns

  • As this is a technical revision, it is not shared with the universities for comment. The Academic and Student Affairs Policy Committee had no concerns during their review.

SYS 100-10, Interim: Institutional Statements

Expires October 1, 2025*

Summary of Interim Policy Action

  • Regent Policy Document (RPD) 4-21, Commitment to Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression, affirms the Board of Regents’ commitment to those principles. The Board acknowledges that “different ideas in the university community will often and quite naturally conflict,” and stipulates that, in instances of such conflict, “[i]t is for the members of the university community, not for the institution itself, to make those judgments for themselves.”
  • In accordance with RPD 4-21, and in order to uphold and protect academic freedom, freedom of expression, and an environment in which competing ideas can be freely discussed and debated by all members of the university community, it is necessary that all official statements issued in the name of and on behalf of the institution are limited to matters that directly affect the operations and mission of the university, and that maintain viewpoint neutrality in any reference to a matter of political or social controversy.

*A permanent policy will be sent out for a regular distribution cycle for university comment and review prior to the expiration of this interim action.