Policies

This website should provide access to all official policies that govern the faculty, staff, and students of Florida State University and reasonable legal notices of all proposed policies.

These policies are proposed and adopted to provide a safe, fair, and ethical environment that supports FSU's mission and values. They are to be consistent with and in addition to governing local, state and federals laws. Faculty, staff, and students are expected to be familiar with those policies applicable to them and to abide by them. These policies are reviewed periodically and updated as necessary due to changes in either the current law or an administrative need. All members of the Florida State University community and public at large are welcome to provide comment or suggestions at any time.

Policies - General

Consistent with its authority granted by the Florida Constitution and the Board of Governors, the FSU Board of Trustees has given the FSU President the executive authority and responsibility for developing and implementing university policy. Through the President’s authority, certain university officials, the Responsible Executives as defined in Policy 2-1 (usually Vice Presidents) have authority to propose and approve policies within their specific areas of responsibility. Polices on this page are contained within and linked to the particular Responsible Executive unit with authority for and adopting the policy.

University Policies further implement the authority delegated by the FSU Board of Trustees to the President or as otherwise established by law. Such policies may also implement provisions of Regulations, statutes and other law. Policies most often involve matters of procedure but also may contain substantive standards and requirements. Strictly internal policies only affecting one unit and no other unit or outside interest may not require formal policy adoption under these procedures.

Occasionally, policies may have university-wide application and are approved by the Board of Trustees or President, but more often, such university wide matters would be addressed in a regulation. A regulation has formal legal standing as a university law. Final determination of whether a particular policy must be enacted as a formal regulation rather than a policy will be by the President in consultation with the University Office of General Counsel. In making such recommendation to adopt as a regulation, the General Counsel would consider whether the policy should the force of law, whether the policy is university-wide or affects a limited number of individuals, the significance or importance of the policy and the message we desire to communicate, and whether a regulation will provide a better communication tool for the new policy.

Adoption of Policies - Procedure

Policies are adopted according to the procedure established in FSU Policy 2-1, Development and Approval of University Policies.  Generally, the proposed new policy or policy revision or repeal should be approved by the appropriate Responsible Executive and then submitted to the Office of General Counsel for legal sufficiency review. It will then be noticed on this site for 21 days and interested persons may submit comments to the appropriate designated person for that policy. After that period, the Responsible Executive, after review of any comments, may adopt the policy as noticed or consider re-noticing the proposed policy with revisions or determine not to adopt. Purely technical revisions such as typographical errors and citation corrections may be made without re-noticing.

Additional administrative and academic procedures pertaining to faculty and students may be found here:

 

Office of the General Counsel
Florida State University 
222 South Copeland Street 
Suite 424, Westcott Building 
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1400 
Phone: 850 644 4440 | Fax: 850 644 8973