This webpage is under development and is undergoing regular changes and review (most recent update: July 24, 2024).

Policies and Procedures at New Mexico Tech

New Mexico Tech Policies help to ensure coordinated compliance with applicable laws and regulations, to promote operational efficiencies, to enhance the Institute mission, or to reduce institutional risk. In addition, New Mexico Tech Policies help to ensure integrity and other fundamental institutional values that define the vision of New Mexico Tech, such as academic freedom, freedom of expression, shared governance, maintaining collegiality and citizenship, and upholding accountability for professionalism and diplomacy among administration, faculty, staff, students, other constituents and maintaining accountability to our accrediting and regulating organizations. All New Mexico Tech policies are found on this webpage, though most also found on various division and office websites (e.g., academic policies are listed on the Office of Academic Affairs site).

New Mexico Tech's Policy Development, Amendment and Rescindment Policy, which is informally known as the Policy on Policy, governs the development, amendment and rescindment of New Mexico Tech policies. As part of the process outlined in this document some draft university policies are subject to a 10-day review and comment period. Such draft policies are posted on this website (see below).

Policy Types

Institute-Wide Policy

Institute-wide policies are those that affect the broader campus community. For example, those needed to operate New Mexico Tech in compliance with state and federal legislation, such as campus health and safety standards, best practices in research, records retention, financial operations, and rules governing non-academic student behavior on campus.

Academic Policy

Academic policies are those that are focused on the academic mission of the Institute. Examples include policies governing academic freedom, tenure and promotion, academic honesty, faculty governance, and faculty qualifications.

Policies Requiring Board of Regents Approval

Some policies require approval by the Board of Regents in addition to the approval of the President. The President and the Chair of the Board of Regents determine whether or not a policy requires Board of Regents' approval. The Board will typically consider policies that govern the financial health and overall quality of the Institute.

Interim Policies

Interim policies are needed when a policy must be in place and there is not time to follow the procedures outlined in this document. For example, an interim policy might be needed to keep New Mexico Tech in compliance with federal or state laws, or the expectations of an accreditation agency. An interim policy only requires approval by the President. An interim policy must note in its title that it is an interim policy. Such policies are by their nature short-term, and should be replaced by regularly developed and approved policy within one year of their adoption.

Conflicts

If a policy or portion of policy conflicts with other Institute policy or with state or federal legislation, the higher ranking policy takes precedence, with the order of ranking, from lowest to highest: academic policy, Institute-wide policy, any policy approved by the Board of Regents, state legislation, federal legislation. If no policy exists regarding a particular issue, the Institute must defer to state or federal law.

Policies Under Campus Community Review

The final drafts of the following policy or policies are available to the campus community for a minimum of 10 business day review and comment period. Any policy under review will appear in this section.

Employee Benefit Funds Policy

This policy, developed based on legal advice, is designed to provide all eligible New Mexico Tech employees with health and wellness benefits, funded through a dedicated account, to support their well-being and protect against unexpected disruptions to their income.

This policy is available to the campus community to review for a minimum of 10 business days. Please submit comments about the Employee Benefit Funds Policy via this Google form link by 5 PM on Thursday, Nov. 14: https://forms.gle/9feBHtcvsHsW1wjn9

The proposed revision was presented at the Council of Chairs on October 15. They reviewed the document and determined the changes were minor enough to be distributed directly to the campus community. During our conversation, one issue was discussed.

1. Does removing "Graduate Studies" from the policy affect anything?

No. The Center for Graduate Studies will still assist with reviewing the paperwork for graduate students who have applied for graduation. However, as is currently the case, the Office of the Registrar is the Office who finalizes the conferral of degrees (not the Center for Graduate Studies).

They also agreed that the Board of Regents may revoke their delegation of degree conferral to the President at any time.

Please send all comments, suggestions, and questions on the proposed revision to [email protected]. Please do so by 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 6. This due date was purposefully set so that it occurs after the next Faculty Senate meeting.

If there are major issues with the proposed revision, they will be brought back to the particular constituent. If there are no significant concerns, then it will be given to the President to review/recommend to the Board of Regents who have approval over this policy.

Take care,

Mike Jackson, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

(Posted Oct. 21, 2024)

Policies for campus community review will be posted here after approval by the president or the appropriate sponsoring vice president or division director. Please see the New Mexico Tech policy and signature approval document listed in the next section below. After administrative approval, any policy under review will be posted here by the Office of Communication and Marketing.

"Policy for Closure and Suspension of University Operations"

The Office of Academic Affairs has issued a draft policy titled "Policy for Closure and Suspension of University Operations." There have been times when weather has either delayed or suspended regular campus operations (e.g., cancellation of classes due to inclement weather). However, questions have come up as to what happens to classes and other events when these situations occur.

Along with a draft policy that we would like to put forward to address such situations, we have drafted some guidelines (primarily for faculty and students) that will hopefully assist individuals when these situations occur. The PDF versions of these documents can be found online at this Policylink with the guidelines found at this Guidelineslink.

New Mexico Tech employees and students are welcome to review the policy and send comments or concerns to Michael Jackson, Vice President for Academic Affairs, [email protected]. We also welcome your feedback on the proposed guidelines. The deadline to comment is Friday, October 6, 2023. If you would like a word version of either document to make track changes on, please feel free to contact michael.jackson@nmt.edu.

Posted online September 18, 2023

Relevant Documents and Templates:

Policy Development, Amendment and Rescindment Policy

New Mexico Tech Policy and Procedures Template and Style Guide

New Mexico Tech Policy Signature and Approval Document

Complete List of Policies

Policies and procedures are listed under the Office of the President and the office of the Vice President or Division Head that is responsible for (the sponsor of) the policy and procedure.