How to Maintain Policies and Related Documents


Review Your Documents

On a regular basis you, the Policy Owner or Subject Matter Expert (SME) should review your documents to ensure that the information is correct and current. Follow these easy steps to select the documents you want to review.

  1. Go to the Maintenance Site
  2. Select your name in the Owner/Subject Matter Expert list or a Responsible Officer. A listing of the documents associated with your role will be displayed and contains the following information about the polices and related documents.

    • Number of Revisions
      The number of major changes made through the life of the policy. Clicking this number will show the document history with comments about each change.

    • Date Last Revised
      This is the most recent date any change was made to your document. This would include both major and minor changes.

    • Date Last Reviewed
      This is the date that the document was last reviewed by the Owner/Subject Matter Expert.

    • Usage Last Quarter
      Usage is the number of times someone has viewed a specific page in the most recent quarter. Quarters end at the end of the month in February (Winter), May (Spring), August (Summer), November (Fall).

    • View FeedbackThis allows you to view feedback from end users related to the document

    You may sort the documents by Title, Number of Revisions or Usage. Simply click the column heading to sort the list.

  3. Review each of the documents to make sure the information is current and accurate.
  4. Print your list of documents by clicking the Printable Version link. Initial and date each document that has been reviewed. This is proof that the documents have been reviewed and are certified as current and accurate.

Making Changes to Documents

After reviewing your documents, some changes may be necessary. There are two ways to make changes.

Send changes to University Policy Office

  1. Click the title of the document to be changed in your maintenance site list. This opens the document.
  2. Print out the document
  3. Make the changes on the printed copies and send to the University Policy Office. The Policy Office will make the changes and notify the Owner and SME when they are completed.

Make Changes on Electronic Copy
This method only works with policies and procedures. Forms and financial tasks need to use the print method described above.

  1. Highlight all content below the University of Minnesota wordmark. Copy this and paste into a Microsoft Word document. It may look slightly different than the online policy but that is okay.
  2. Turn on "Track Changes" in Microsoft Word by choosing Tools > Track Changes > Highlight Changes.
  3. Make the necessary changes. Because you turned on the Track Changes feature, these changes will be highlighted in red and underlined.
  4. Email the Microsoft Word document to policy@umn.edu. Please make sure you describe the substance of the change in the email subject line. The Policy Office will make the changes and notify the Owner and SME when they are completed.