Sam Houston State University (SHSU) establishes, implements, and disseminates policies that adhere to principles of good educational practice and that accurately represent the programs and services of the institution.
Academic policies at SHSU are established with review, consultation, and/or approval of representative memberships of various policy-making bodies that include the departments, units, and/or divisions; Council of Academic Deans [1]; the University Faculty Senate [2]; the Academic Affairs Council [3]; and the University President.
The administration, in consultation with the faculty and respective institutional units, creates and reviews academic policies. The academic policy review cycle requires periodic review of each policy to ensure currency with principles of good educational practice and alignment with Texas State University System (TSUS) Rules and Regulations, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) rules, and Texas Statutes. At least once every five years, policies are retained without revision, updated, or eliminated. As necessary to remain compliant with rules and regulations of governing bodies, policy revisions may be initiated out of cycle through the policy revision process. In the case of complex policies (e.g., Faculty Grievance, Faculty Merit), ad hoc sub-committees comprised of faculty and administrators may be created to generate an initial draft revision. In the review process, proposed additions, changes, or deletions are reviewed by the Council of Academic Deans and the University Faculty Senate, with consultation from institutional departments as necessary. Prior to the final stage of review and approval by the Academic Affairs Council, all policies are reviewed by the TSUS Attorney. Upon approval at each level, culminating with the University President, the approved policy is posted within the online Academic Policy Manual [4]. The policy revision process is presented in detail in the Academic Affairs Policy Review and Revision Process diagram [5].
Following the review and approval process, the University publishes and disseminates academic policies through a number of publications and online resources. All policies are available online with access through a variety of portals. The University’s Policies Procedures webpage provides an overview of all university policies [6], and each division within the University publishes the same divisional policies and procedures on their websites. Examples are provided for the Academic Affairs Policies webpage [7] and the Student Affairs Policies webpage [8].
In order to increase the likelihood of students finding appropriate student-related policies, SHSU publishes policies in multiple online sites. For example, policies are provided in the undergraduate [9] and graduate [10] catalogs, the Graduate Student Toolkit [11], and the Registrar’s Office website [12]. In addition, the Student Guidelines publication provides descriptions and references to select academic policies related to students [9]. A webpage providing links to pertinent policies particularly relevant to students, such as academic dishonesty, student absences on religious holy days, and reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities, is available for faculty to list in their syllabi [14], as required within the Faculty Handbook [15] [16] [17].
To make faculty and staff aware of updates and modifications to academic policies, information is disseminated through committees like the University Faculty Senate [18], Council of Academic Deans [19], and Council of Associate Academic Deans [20]. Example committee meeting minutes in which policy information was disseminated are provided. In addition, annual University-wide faculty meetings and New Faculty Breakfasts hosted by the Provost are designed to provide updated information to faculty members. In addition to publication of SHSU academic policies, SHSU is required by the TSUS to make faculty aware of the TSUS Rules and Regulations. The TSUS Rules and Regulations are available online [21] and are accessible from the Academic Affairs Policies webpage [7].