As the chill of autumn tries its best to settle into southwest Ohio, I think about gathering together some good reads for the sit-by-the-fire season. Might I suggest something right at your fingertips? Great reads, relatable to your personal life, impactful on your work life, and reflective of your Christ-centered community. Books that you will come back to again and again. I present to you your Policy Handbooks. Ask yourselves, when was the last time I read my Faculty Handbook or my Staff Handbook? How well do I know them? Am I familiar with current revisions?
The principal way that the Higher Learning Commission knows who we are and how we operate is through our written policies and procedures. For the upcoming visit, our Assurance Argument references many areas of the Personnel Policy Handbook, the Staff Policy Handbook, the Faculty Policy Handbook, and the Student Handbook, aka The Cedarville Experience. (Note: you may have to log in if you try to open these links.) Although these are separate documents, we all are governed by policies in 1 or more of them.
University Human Resources maintains two (Personnel and Staff) Handbooks, while providing guidance and follow-through with the Academic Division on the Faculty Handbook. The Student Handbook is on the Student Life and Christian Ministries website and is maintained by Student Life. In this post, I will focus on the three that relate most to faculty and staff, although I encourage all of us to become familiar with the Student Handbook.
Updated on Oct. 1, 2015, The Personnel Policy Handbook is a current document that applies to ALL employees, and contains chapters on History, Mission, Beliefs, and Governance, General Work Place Standards and Other Conditions of Employment, Sexual Harassment Policy, Benefits and Services, Computer and Network Usage, Campus Safety, and Employment of Student Workers. The Personnel Policy Handbook contains nearly all the information that governs your work environment and your interactions with the University and your fellow employees.
According to the definition given on the opening page of the Staff Handbook, Staff Personnel are employees who do not “carry faculty rank. This definition includes administrative staff who hold faculty status.” Furthermore, the Handbook states that “This Staff Handbook supersedes all previous handbooks, manuals, letters, memoranda, and understandings.” It behooves us to be well acquainted with this book! Here you can find Workplace Expectations, Compensation policies, Time Off/Leave policies, Benefits, and Work Place Safety and Facilities.
The Faculty Handbook contains detailed descriptions of the Portrait Statements, Core Value Documents (different from Student Life Core Values), Recognition, Accreditation, and Governance, Faculty Personnel Policies, Academic Policies, Administrative Policies, Faculty Benefits and Compensation, Student Policies (which mirror those in the Student Handbook), and Academic Support Services.
As for myself, I’m in the process of reading through the Grievance Policy (5.2) of the Faculty Handbook. This was revised in November 2012 by the Board of Trustees and faculty, having been previously revised in July 2004. Having such a policy along with procedures for following the policy are very important for HLC. One of the Assumed Practices that will be examined by the Reviewers in our upcoming visit concerns our complaint process. It states, “The institution provides clear information regarding its procedures for receiving complaints and grievances from students and other constituencies, responds to them in a timely manner, and analyzes them to improve its processes.” Having the formal Grievance Policy is an important piece of evidence for our reaffirmation of accreditation.
Now for some fun: in the side bar of each future Accreditation Update post I will ask a trivia question from one of our Policy Handbooks. The first response I receive via email will be publicly recognized.
Note the new web banner, “Yes, We Assess!” Click on the banner to learn more about our Assessment Process. Assessment is a necessary process that makes us excellent. We want to embrace it.
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