Meeting Recap
The University Policy Review Committee (PRC) met virtually on February 18, 2021 and discussed several policy updates.
Judy Faubert, UNC’s Chief Compliance Officer and an Associate University Counsel, presented a suite of updates related to the federal National Defense Authorization Act, Section 889 (NDAA 889). NDAA 889 prevents government contractors’ use of certain telecommunications and services from prohibited vendors. Faubert noted that the University has a working group that has been creating a multi-tiered plan to ensure UNC’s compliance with the federal rule. Due to questions from Liaisons about enforcement and auditing for compliance of these new exclusions, and to allow additional time for Finance to review, these policy updates will return to the PRC in March.
Katie Nolan, Executive Director of Strategy, Policy, and Special Projects for the Office of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and Compliance presented a new University Policy and Procedure on Employee Fitness for Duty. According to Nolan, the key idea behind the creation of these documents was to create a centralized, non-disciplinary process, addressing any medical issues that might affect the workplace. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) speaks directly to a process like this and UNC’s ADA coordinator was heavily involved in the drafting of these new policy documents. The procedures create a step by step process for managers/supervisors and set up a process for the ADA coordinator to store and maintain employee medical records in these cases instead of a supervisor. PRC Liaisons discussed how these new documents intersect with policies regarding substance abuse and other situations. Liaisons provided feedback and suggestions on wording as well. Nolan agreed to discuss the proposed edits with her team and to publish the documents as soon as they were able to incorporate the appropriate edits.
Jen DeNeal, Associate Director for Ethics and Policy, presented updates to the University Policy Framework. The updates were technical and largely to add clarity to the Framework. DeNeal noted that these edits had no practical effect on how policy management occurs at UNC. DeNeal also introduced a draft Policy Review Committee Charter, citing her desire to further formalize and institutionalize the UNC policy process. Liaisons discussed whether to allow for the appointment of “delegates” to attend PRC meetings in their places if needed. DeNeal agreed to update the draft with delegate language and bring the Charter back for approval at the March meeting.
Matthew Teal, University Policy Analyst, provided the committee with an update on the transition to a new University Policy Management System. Teal stated that the University is in final contract negotiations with the new vendor and that he is working with the current vendor on how best to export our current policy data out of the old system. He reiterated the need for all Policy Liaisons to begin identifying all of the policy links on their respective organizational websites as those links will need to be updated when the new system launches.
Who is on the PRC?
Members of the PRC represent schools and units from across campus and are appointed by their respective school/unit leaders.
When is the next meeting?
The PRC will meet again on March 18 at 10:00 a.m. via Zoom.