PREFACE

I am pleased to present this new Institute Policies and Procedures Manual to the RIT community: student leaders, faculty, staff, and administration. As President Simone has noted in the Foreword, this compendium contains, in one volume, the most important internal policies and procedures guiding our activities as an institution of higher education.

The re-publication of these policies and procedures was necessitated by a number of factors: recent changes in our administrative structures and titles; changes in and additions to our governance structures; approved revisions of existing policies; the approval of several new policies in the last three years; and, last but not least, the scarcity of previously printed editions of our policies and procedures manuals.

In May 1996, the Academic Senate created an Ad Hoc Committee on Editing and Re-publication of the Institute's Policies and Procedures Manuals. The committee was composed of the Provost, the Vice President for Student Affairs (Linda Kuk), the Chair of Staff Council (Alice McCrave, Cynthia Gray), the President of Student Government (April Brooks), the Chairs of the Academic Senate's Faculty Affairs Committee (Bruce Oliver) and Academic Affairs Committee (Jeffrey Lessard), the Assistant to the Provost (Sue Provenzano), and the Vice Chair (Guy Johnson) and Chair (Mary Sullivan) of the Academic Senate. This Committee, assisted by the Director of Personnel (Katharine Bello), has worked since last summer to prepare the publication of the present Manual.

This work has involved what we have regarded as very conservative editing of existing policies. This editing has been strictly limited to the following: correction of typographical errors, wording errors, and grammar errors in previous editions of some policies; correction of collegiate and administrative titles; correction and/or clarification of punctuation; and consistency in formatting, spacing, and outlining. Consistency of style from policy to policy was not sought; each policy retains the "flavor" of its period of composition. The Chair of the Academic Senate and the Provost bear responsibility for the final editing and for any errors that remain.

In presenting the policies and procedures in this Manual, we have provided in each case the date (or approximate date) when the policy was first approved and the date of its last formal revision, whether by the Institute Council or the Academic Senate, or by the Personnel Office in the case of policies or procedures issued by that office. We have included cross-references to other given policies only as necessary. I might here also point out that wherever a policy refers to an academic "department" it means "the members of the department, including the chair," unless otherwise stated.

The policies and procedures in this Manual have been numbered in such a way that new policies, or approved revisions of current policies, can be distributed and inserted in the future without disturbing the rest of the Manual. Every reasonable effort will be made to keep this Manual up to date (as well as the electronic copy of it which will be available by Fall 1997-1998). However, the loose-leaf character of this Manual places a special responsibility on all of us to keep our copies intact and up to date. The texts of these policies as they appear in this updated Manual are the official texts.

Finally, I wish to thank especially Sue Provenzano, Assistant to the Provost, and Professor Mary Sullivan, for their meticulous work in bringing the publication of this Manual to completion.

Stanley D. McKenzie
Provost and Vice President
for Academic Affairs

February 1997