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POLICY CHANGES, DELETIONS, ADDITIONS

Note: Housekeeping changes are in the following section at the bottom of the page.

 

February 8, 2016

Added text to Guide Memos 10.1.1 and 10.2.2 to specify that when students receive a university research award, they should follow department policies if other students are hired (i.e., for transcription, coding, etc.).

10.1.1 Undergraduate Student Employment

Section 4.a., Hiring, Paying and Supervising Students:
New text inserted at end of subsection: "Students who receive a university award that includes funding to hire undergraduate students to complete hourly work (e.g., coding, transcription, or other effort associated with academic projects) are subject to these policies. In such cases, the department should manage the funding and hire the student hourly employee."
 

10.2.2 Graduate Student Hourly Employment

Section 3.a., Hiring, Paying and Supervising Students:
New text inserted at end of subsection: "Students who receive a university award that includes funding to hire graduate students to complete hourly work (e.g., coding, transcription, or other effort associated with academic projects) are subject to these policies. In such cases, the department should manage the funding and hire the student hourly employee."


December 18, 2015 Update

AGM 2.1.6: Vacations

Summary: Changes to this policy were done to clarify meaning, simplify language for greater understanding, and reformat for increased readability. Charts that were based on changes made many years ago were no longer applicable and were removed. No changes were made to vacation accrual rates or maximums. Specific guidelines for vacation payment upon termination related to terminal vacation were added to ensure consistent application across University schools and units.
 
  • Throughout: clarified the policy applies to "regular staff" employees vs. "employees."
  • Throughout: updated URLs to other Guide Memos and to other websites.
  • Applicability: added a sentence clarifying that the policy does not apply to contingent staff employees.
  • Section 1.a.: Revised section name from “Definition of Period of Service” to: "Period of Service for the Purpose of Determining Vacation Accrual Rates” and reformatted text, adding 1.a.(1) and 1.a.(2).
  • Section 1.c.: Revised chart column headers for Non-Exempt staff to: Qualifying Service Non-Exempt Staff; Per House on Straight Time Pay Status; and Approximate Days Accrued per Year.
o   Reformatted text, adding 1.c.(1) and 1.c.(2).
o   Revised chart column headers for Exempt staff in the first column to: Years of  Service Exempt Staff (Do not track hours worked)
o   1.c.(2): Revised first sentence to clarify meaning, which is now: “Vacation is credited on a prorated basis for all hours in straight time pay status (not overtime) in the month credited.” In second sentence, added the word “time” after “sick” at the end of the sentence. In third sentence, clarified the meaning by inserting the word “prorated” so it reads: “Accrual for exempt employees is prorated based on the proportion of the employee's FTE.”
  • Section 1.d.: Reformatted text, adding 1.d.(1) and 1.d.(2). Minor changes to clarify vacation does not accrue during specific periods.
  • Section 1.e.: Reformatted text, adding 1.d.(1), 1.e.(2), 1.e.(3) and 1.e.(4).
  • 1.e.(1): Deleted outdated chart and added language to this section to clarify what happens when vacation accrual reaches the maximum.
  • 1.e.(3): Clarified that any exceptions to the accrual maximum can only be granted by the Vice President for Human Resources.
  • 1.e.(4): Minor text changes to clarify meaning.
  • Section 2.b.: In third sentence, deleted “requirements” and inserted “operational needs” when referring to departments and scheduling of vacations.
  • Section 2.b.(2): Revised first sentence to:   Exempt Employees: “Vacation time is generally not reported in increments of less than four hours.”
  • Sections 2.d & 2.f: Inserted the word “accruals” after “vacation” to clarify meaning.
  • Section 2.g.: Revised section name “Terminal Vacation Payment” to: “Vacation Payment Upon Termination” and added new sub-sections to clarify circumstances by which vacation is paid in a lump sum and circumstances and eligibility criteria related to terminal vacation. Reformatted, adding 2.g.(1), 2.g.(2), 2.g.(2)a., 2.g.(2)b., 2.g.(2)c. and 2.g.(2)d. New text was added in each of these sub-sub-sections.
  • Section 2.h.: Revised the first sentence to add “An approved” when referring to a leave of absence without pay.
  • Section 3: Simplified the Guide to Supervisors, adding language to clarify updating vacation leave records is the employee’s responsibility, directing supervisors to termination references and indicating that employees view vacation accruals in Axess or on their pay statements.

November 2, 2015 Update

AGM 3.2.1: Responsibility for University Funds

  • Retitled from “Authorizing Expenditures”
  • Added new Section 5: “Expenditures of Gifts” with new content
  • Throughout: minor text changes that do not change policy meaning, and updates to URLs

AGM 5.4.1: Expense Advances

  • Authority change to Sr. Associate VP for Finance from VP for Business Affairs & CFO
  • Added new content in Section 1.c.: “All advances for travel must include supporting documentation detailing the estimated travel expenses. Human Subject incentives greater than $200.00 per subject cannot be advanced and must be processed as a direct non-purchase order payment in the Expense Requests system.”
  • Retitled Section 2.c. from Check Delivery to Delivery of Funds
  • Added new Section 3: Expense Reporting, moved 1.e. and 1.f. to this section; added link in 1.e. to Fingate on how to clear advances.

AGM 5.4.2: Travel Expenses

  • Authority change to Sr. Associate VP for Finance from VP for Business Affairs & CFO
  • Reorganized content from 15 sections to four sections, with Section 2 titled Roles and Responsibilities and Section 3 titled Policies
  • Added new subsections to Section 3: Principles: Reasonable and Necessary Expenditures and Economical Transportation Required, which included new text and clarifying text throughout, along with new links to get further details on Fingate and on the Dean of Research websites

AGM 5.4.3: Reimbursable Expenses

  • Title change to “Reimbursable Expenses” from “Reimbursement of Expenses”
  • Authority change to Sr. Associate VP for Finance from VP for Business Affairs & CFO
  • Clarifying content and links added throughout; content reorganized into one section (from two), with three subsections: Stewardship of University Resources, Reimbursable Expenses and Non-Reimbursable Expenses. Content under "Reimbursable Expenses" that was previously in paragraph form now presented in table form.

AGM 5.4.4: Petty Cash Funds

  • Authority change to Sr. Associate VP for Finance from VP for Business Affairs & CFO
  • Clarifying content and links added throughout; content reorganized into four sections (from seven): Overview and Purpose, Principles, Uses of Petty Cash Funds, and References

Housekeeping Changes

Changes do not affect policy content, but may include corrected cross-references to other policies, corrected titles, change of authority for the policy, changed URLs, addresses, and phone numbers or very minor text changes for clarity. The changes below are listed by the order in which they were updated.

December 16, 2015

AGM 1.6.2: Privacy and Security of Health Information (HIPAA)

  • Section 14: inserted missing URLs or updated existing URLs to the guidelines

AGM 2.2.8: Controlled Substances and Alcohol

  • Throughout: corrected the name of the department that is a resource for staff to Employee & Labor Relations
  • Section 1.a. and Section 4: updated the link to the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education

AGM 8.2.1: University Events

  • Section 3.c. and Section 4: updated the links to Tresidder Meeting Services

November 24, 2015

Chapter 3, AGM 3.2.2: Cost Transfers and AGM 3.2.3: Allocations and Offsets; correct URL for the Understanding Cost Policy class.

November 11, 2015

Chapter 1, AGM 1.2.1: University Organization

  • Section 2.d.: name change of one of the committees to: Committee on Audit, Compliance and Risk


All updates are archived. For previous changes, please contact the Guide Editor at guide-editor@lists.stanford.edu.