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 June 2008
What's new in University-Wide Administrative Policies? Here are some highlights from the past few months. More changes can be found at http://policy.umn.edu, under the Recently Updated Policies link on the left navigation bar. Snapshot: Financial Policy and Procedure ChangesWe are four weeks away and counting down to the July 1, 2008 implementation of the new financial system. Between regular updates from the project, multiple training classes, course materials, and all your ‘regular’ work, you may be on information overload. To help you, we have gathered and clarified major financial policy and process changes into a single document to use as a reference when meeting with others in your office or while processing transactions. Click to view: http://policy.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/appendix/efs_changes.pdf. Please refer to the revised policies and procedures for all the changes, once they are published. The Wait is Over for Human Resource Policies!We are excited to announce that all 36 human resource policies have been converted to the standard policy format and are now searchable from both the Policy Home Page (http://policy.umn.edu) as well as the Human Resources Policy Page http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/policies/index.html. This major effort completes another checklist item in our drive to improve the access to, and navigation of, all administrative policies. Medical Leave & Disability Benefits for Faculty and Academic Professional and Administrative Employees (formerly Sick and Disability Leaves for Academic Employees)A new provision permitting limited use of medical leave has been added. This may be used to care for or arrange care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition as defined under the policy. Also included in this revised policy are specific medical leave reporting requirements and clarification of University rights to request medical leave documentation.
Feedback received from the University community will be gathered on July 2nd and considered prior to the policy change going into effect. Unpaid Personal Leaves for Faculty and Academic Professional and Administrative Employees (formerly Family & Personal Leaves without Pay)The State of Minnesota allows for leaves for victims of certain crimes. The University policy language has been revised to align with this law. For individuals with appointments of less than 50% time and/or an appointment term of less than 9 months, there is a change in the maximum number of days that may be taken in a fiscal year. Human Resources also provided greater clarity around leave eligibility based on percentage of appointment.
Feedback received from the University community will be gathered on July 2nd and considered prior to the policy change going into effect. Fixed Price Contracts, including Clinical TrialsA number of awards received by the University of Minnesota are fixed price contracts, where the sponsor awards a set dollar amount, even if actual costs are above or below that amount. What has changed in this most recent version of the policy is that the closeout process has been streamlined. Principal investigators need to complete a closeout form only if they have a significant residual balance. That threshold for “significant balance” has been increased from 10% to 25% for total payments received of $25,000 or more. For payments under $25,000, the form will be required when the balance is $6250 or greater. Find all the details at http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/policy/clinical_trials_pol.cfm. Financial One Stop is stopping!The University Policy Office continually looks for ways in which we can best serve our end users. Last year, we surveyed our customers and discovered that there was a stronger preference for text procedures than the clickable flowcharts provided in Financial One Stop (FOS). That feedback combined with the challenges of supporting multiple sets of information led us to the decision to transition to one consistent method of presenting administrative procedures. As of July 1, 2008, all procedures will be in text format and may be accessed through their corresponding policy. This timing is ideal as it also corresponds with the publishing of the revised financial policies and procedures. FOS will be discontinued and anyone using that web address will be redirected to the policy home page: http://policy.umn.edu. If you have bookmarked the FOS site or included it as a link on your web pages, please replace with the above web address. Updates: Board of Regents PoliciesAmended Mission Statement (under Board Operations) The most current versions of policies are available on the Board of Regents website (http://www1.umn.edu/regents/). At this web address, policies may be accessed and printed using Adobe Acrobat or an unofficial (HTML) format. |
The Medical Leave & Disability Benefits for Faculty and Academic Professional and Administrative Employees policy is now available for a 30-day public review and comment period at