SFSU Policies and Procedures Guide Background

San Francisco State University
Policies and Procedures Guide

Background

It was recommended in the May, 1997 final draft of the Commission on University Strategic Planning (CUSP) report that: "In order to bring forth the best from our community...San Francisco State University seeks to create as user-friendly a campus environment as possible. For this reason, the University seeks to ensure the free flow of information and resources by maintaining equitable, accessible policies and procedures - to create as many open avenues as possible."

Specifically, CUSP states:

Our Policies and Procedures

We will ensure that all of our policies and procedures are clearly stated and well publicized. We will:

Document and disseminate all policies and procedures.

Recommendation 34: A central database of all policies and procedures in effect on the campus should be established and easily accessible. Each unit on campus should include in this database comprehensive material on its policies and procedures. This information should be regularly reviewed for purposes of updating, clarifying, and simplifying it.

At the request of the Vice President for Business and Finance, Internal Audit has implemented a pilot program to identify campus-wide policies and procedures issued by the Executive and Business and Finance areas, and to make these policies and procedures available on the World Wide Web. The plan implemented by Internal Audit included the following steps:

Identify and gather copies of campus-wide policy and procedure documents issued by the President and by Business and Finance units.
Review documents to determine currency and applicability.
Scan and edit current policies.
Work with the Internet Applications unit of Computing Services to develop and create Web pages.
Create topic index and search engine to facilitate the ability of a user to locate a policy or procedure by subject.
Announce availability of policies and procedures on the Web and invite e-mail queries regarding these and any other policies and procedures not included.

Future Development

The other cabinet areas (Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Physical Planning and Development, and Advancement) were requested to notify Internal Audit of the addition of any policies and procedures they have issued and/or placed on their area's Web site(s). Each vice president was asked to designate one person to be responsible for gathering documents, creating Web pages, and coordinating implementation for all units in that cabinet officer's area. Format guidelines will be established in consultation with the other areas using design standards set by the Office of Publications.

Implementation of the CUSP recommendation will continue indefinitely as additional areas make their policies and procedures available on the Web, as new policies and procedures are established, and as existing ones are updated, replaced, or cancelled.

Feedback

We are interested in your questions, comments and suggestions regarding this service to the campus community. If you have any ideas for improving the usefulness of this Website, or for Policies and Procedures that should be added to the listings, please send an e-mail to: audit@sfsu.edu or call Internal Audit at 415/338-2763.

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Last modified April 23, 2008 by Internal Audit, Administration and Finance

Comments to: audit@sfsu.edu or call extension 8-2763.