Reviewing Southwest Tennessee Community College’s policies

By Tameka Perry, Esq.

Policies

As a reminder for some and, for the benefit of those who recently joined the Southwest team, let’s review a few facts about the College’s policies.
 
The Southwest policy manual is published online at: https://www.southwest.tn.edu/policy/index.php. Policies are overseen by the Chief of Staff’s Office (formerly the Office of Equity and Compliance), with review and approval by the President.
 
Policies generally fall into three categories and include the following: policies required by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR); policies mandated by the President of Southwest; and policies that any employee or governance group may propose. If TBR requires that the College have a policy or if the President mandates a policy, no vote is required, however, everyone will be made aware of the policy through associated governance groups, departmental leaders, the SCOOP newsletter, etc.
 
If a policy is not required by TBR or the President, the proposed policy or policy revision should be submitted to the Chief of Staff’s Office pursuant to Southwest Policy 1:00:00:00. After the initial phase, the proposal will be shared with assigned governance groups, each of which will vote on the proposal.  If it is approved by the governance groups, the proposal will be presented at a President’s Cabinet meeting for a vote. The voting protocol for President’s Cabinet meetings can be found here: Presidents Cabinet Voting Protocol.pdf. Upon approval by the President’s Cabinet, the proposal will become an official Southwest policy.
 
Please review the Southwest policy manual to familiarize yourself with it. A review of TBR’s policies should also be helpful.  They can be found at this link: https://policies.tbr.edu/.