Dear Colleagues,

In August 2022, the university announced the adoption of the Policy on Policy, which governs the creation and revision of all university-wide administrative policies. All new or revised policies are now managed by the Policy Office of the Department of Enterprise Risk Services and are catalogued in the Tulane Policy Library.

The Governance Risk and Compliance Executive Council approved six new policies on February 22, 2024, and they have been added to the Policy Library:

Essential Personnel Policy: This policy outlines guidelines for identifying essential employees who must continue working to maintain the university's operations during emergencies. Essential employees are required to report to work, be on call, or work remotely as necessary to ensure the university's critical functions.
Foreign Gift and Contract Reporting Policy: This policy mandates that all university departments must report every gift and/or contract received by the university from any non-U.S. person or entity to support Tulane's research security program and to satisfy federal reporting requirements pursuant to Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Policy Against Retaliation: This policy ensures protection for members of the Tulane University community who make good faith reports or inquiries about alleged violations of law or university policy, prohibiting retaliatory actions against them. It also prohibits knowingly and intentionally making false reports of non-compliance.
Policy on Modified Duty for Workplace Injuries: This policy outlines the eligibility for participation in the Modified Duty Program. It provides modified duty assignments to employees who have sustained a work-related injury/illness that prevents them from performing the full range of duties within their job description.
Research Security Pre-Employment Screening Policy: This policy requires an enhanced background check screening of each person seeking employment in a research or research-related support position, such as graduate students, postdocs, and/or visiting researchers (without regard to national origin, citizenship, or other protected classification).
Retention of Research Data Policy: This policy provides governance and record retention requirements for research data generated by and related to research projects at Tulane University. It defines and provides the framework and rules for identifying, categorizing, storing, using, improving, protecting, retaining, and otherwise managing our research data.

Additionally, two existing policies were updated by the Governance Risk and Compliance Executive Council on February 22, 2024:

Child Abuse/Neglect Reporting Policy & Procedures: Written in accordance with applicable laws regarding the welfare of children, the policy explains the responsibility of Tulane employees to report child abuse, neglect, and/or crimes against the child, when reporting is required, and the process for reporting.
Subpoena Policy: This policy outlines Tulane University's procedure for accepting the service of a subpoena and responding to it. It also outlines the procedure for outside entities (not affiliated with Tulane University) seeking medical records.

Questions regarding these policies can be directed to the Enterprise Risk Services Policy Office at policyoffice@tulane.edu.

I appreciate your attention to these policies, which will help us support our mission, drive our decisions, and inspire us to do more and be more.

Thank you,

Patrick Norton, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Chair, Governance Risk and Compliance Executive Council