Leadership
Development Program 2003
Policy Access: Campus Needs and Best Practices Project
Project Team & Sponsors
Prepared
by
Jody Bussell, Library
Patricia Donnelly, Boalt Hall School of Law
Cynthia Ernest, Electronics Research Laboratory,
Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center
Randall Fastabend, Lawrence Hall of Science
Peggy Huston, Communications and Network Services
Cindy Kennon, Institute of Transportation Studies
Audrey Knowlton, College of Letters and Science
Deans’ Office
Sheila Wekselbaum, Library
Dave Williams, Financial Aid Office
Sponsored
by
James Hyatt, Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance,
and CFO
Greg Brown, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Finance and
Controller
Barbara VanCleave Smith, Director of Controls and
Accountability
Introduction
“Policy is the glue that holds a decentralized organization together.” – Greg Brown
It is essential that UC Berkeley improve upon its policy access methods to ensure effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of financial reporting, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
The Policy Access Project Team’s mission was to engage the campus community in the process of evaluating access to policies and procedures and to recommend policy access improvements.
The Project Team investigated methods to improve policy access at the UC Berkeley campus. The Team developed and distributed a needs survey, identified and interviewed UC Berkeley policy makers, and analyzed best practices at other universities.
Research findings show a significant number of staff and faculty are dependent upon policy to do their jobs and have difficulty accessing and/or interpreting campus policy. Inadequate access to information can cause policy non-compliance with potential fiscal liability to the University. Data also reveals that the lack of a centralized structure for development, approval, and administration of campus policy results in ineffective and inefficient operations. Best practices research shows that other universities have faced similar policy access challenges and have successfully implemented some effective policy access methods. On this campus, when asked where efforts should be focused to improve access to policy, an improved campus website was the overwhelming response.
The Policy Access Project Team recommends streamlining policy development procedures, implementing multiple policy dissemination methods, creating a centralized repository, and establishing a single liaison between various policy sources.
Specific recommendations include:
- Improving the policy development and approval process
- Creating a standardized template for campus-wide policies
- Improving policy and procedure dissemination
- Establishing an effective central policy and procedures website
- Expanding policy training and help
- Centralizing the administration of policy access and coordination
The full
report by the Leadership Development Program Policy Access Project
Team provides a detailed blueprint for improving policy access on
the UC Berkeley campus.
Go
to LDP Policy Access Project Table of Contents
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