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No Place to Run, No Place to Hide

 Law and Policy on Campus

“Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because’tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him.”

 John Selden (1584–1654) English antiquarian & jurist

During the summer, the CUA Office of General Counsel (OGC) completed rebuilding the university’s policy website.  As Federal regulation of higher education enters its fifth decade of major growth and continues to expand, university policies aimed at assuring compliance and preventing litigation are more important than ever. 

All members of the university community are responsible for understanding and following the laws, standards and policies associated with their work. This guide will help familiarize the reader with the many different ways in which university activities can be regulated.

University policies and procedures establish rules applicable to all faculty, staff and students. The CUA Policies Page has a new look as of last April. This is a key resource. If you want to be sure that you have the official version of a particular policy, this is the page to check. Policies can be searched alphabetically from A-Z or by subject area, such as academic undergraduate, employment, student life.  A search box ( lower left hand corner) will conduct a word search of the entire policies site. The Policy on Policies explains the process of policy adoption and revision at CUA.

Guidelines are used to help explain and implement policies. An example would be the CUA Copyright Guidelines, which are incorporated by reference in the Copyright Policy.   The Copyright Guidelines provide details to fill in issues not spelled out in a policy.  For example, the Copyright policy simply refers to “following the law” but the Copyright guidelines spell out the details of current compliance for fair use, classroom handouts, showing of films and the like.  At CUA, guidelines are more flexible than policies and simpler to modify or update.

Federal statutes (arranged together as the U.S. Code) are a large part of what keeps the OGC busy.  These laws range from the U.S.A. Patriot Act to hazardous materials research to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), something we have been required to become familiar with, even though CUA is not a ‘covered entity” under HIPAA.  

Due to the extremely large number of federal laws, the OGC created a web page to keep us current. Members of the university community are encouraged to use this online resource, which can be found at http://counsel.cua.edu. Specific questions about how to apply the law in a particular situation should be directed to any of the three lawyers in the Office of General Counsel.

Federal Regulations are what Federal agencies produce to supplement the broad brush strokes of Federal statutes.  These regulations are also linked from the Office of General Counsel web page. Examples of federal regulations include details of implementing environmental laws, such as the details of the disposal of hazardous waste created in labs.  Recently a new rule was proposed, which is specific to academic labs. This proposed rule can be found online at http://counsel.cua.edu/environment/.

For every activity that is important to the operation of a university, then there is likely a federal law, a set of federal regulations and a policy regulating that activity.  One example is student record privacy. The governing Federal law is called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, (known as FERPA), as well as a set of regulations  and a policy at CUA entitled Student Records.  The policy translates the law and regulations into a set of detailed rules governing the actions of those at the university who create, use or file student records.  Recognizing that there might be questions not covered by policy, the OGC also creates some question and answer pages on the OGC website. The FERPA Question and Answer Page is one such resource.

District of Columbia Laws are also laws applicable to the actions of those acting on behalf of the university. For example, student organizations planning  to host lotteries and other fundraising events may be subject to local laws and should take a look at the summary of the DC laws on bingo games and gambling.

Plan Documents are the formal documents that govern the operations of the university’s employee benefits programs.  Of interest to “benefits eligible” employees are the ERISA Plan Documents that govern benefits such as the Employee Assistance Plan, the retirement plan and the health plan among others.  Summary Plan Descriptions are also online for ERISA Plans that are run by the university.

In summary, a few general concepts applicable to use of statutes, regulations and policies in the workplace might be helpful:

Ø      Learn all applicable regulations and policies associated with your position. Use the web pages created for this purpose, both http://counsel.cua.edu and http://policies.cua.edu

Ø      Ask questions when unsure.  Don’t sign a contract committing the university to an agreement unless you have authority by Board of Trustees resolution to do so. If you are aware of or suspect illegal activity, report it to the Office of General Counsel or if it involves financial irregularity, it may be reported anonymously to the Fraud Hotline at (202) 319-4500.

Ø      Be a responsible steward.  As a general rule, university resources should only be used for university purposes.  Avoid conflicts of interest or even perceived conflicts of interest.

Ø      Be a good manager.  Don’t let someone begin work in a university workplace, either as an employee or a contractor, without a properly approved appointment from the Provost, Employee Data Form or an Independent Contractor Agreement approved by OGC.  Those who manage other employees should confirm that persons working under their supervision have been properly trained on all workplace rules.  Managers should also role model accountability, integrity, and stewardship and be encouraging to employees sharing of questions and concerns.*

* Credit and thanks to Tom Schumacher, Director of Institutional Compliance at the University of Minnesota, for permission to use some of his points from the document entitled Key Concepts: University’s Legal and Policy Framework.