Eastern Washington University conducted a public hearing for policy changes on October 4th which consisted of talking points such as changes to the lost and found policies, employment paperwork at the university, and changes to the investment policy. This article will cover the basics under a list of bullet points to summarize some of these changes.

Lost & Found Policy Changes

Proponent: University Police Department

Official proposals: 

• Updates the procedures for lost and abandoned property on campus  
• Provides a process for addressing personal property abandoned by former employees.

Summary: 

The policy that was established was to set standards and procedure relative to property that was found or abandoned on university grounds. Property claimed by the EWUPD as part of a criminal investigation is outside the scope of the policy.

The changes that are made allow for the lost and found allow for offices to make a reasonable effort to post notices of found property items, a storage system that is out of public view and secured against theft, and will return the lost property to the person when they can prove ownership over the item that they lost possession of.

Depending on the value of the property it is stated that the EWUPD “appraised value of the property is less than the cost of publishing notice … the EWUPD may cause notice to be posted or published in other media or formats”. This is to make an effort to notify people of higher priced items that could have been lost. 

The list of lost and found office can be found on the EWUPD website: https://inside.ewu.edu/police/police-services/lost-and-found/ along with a complete detailed report on every change that has been made to the lost & found process: https://in.ewu.edu/policies/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/2022/07/EWU_603_08_LostFound_FirstRead.pdf.

Exempt Employment Changes

Proponent: Vice President for Business & Finance

Official proposals: 

• Updates the process for filing exempt positions to better align with current practices 
• Adds a new chapter about the contents of and access to personnel files for exempt employees.

Summary: 

The purpose of this policy change was to set standards for management for EWU employees who are non-faculty and exempt from classified service pursuant.

These changes are brief as the last updates were made earlier this year in late February. However, some of these minor changes can be seen in the way that they changed some of the exempt positions to better fit into EWU’s Equal Opportunity Policy and Affirmative Action Program.

For a detailed exempt employment report you can click the link attached here: https://in.ewu.edu/policies/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/2022/07/EWU-406-01_Exempt-Employment_FirstRead.pdf.

Investment Policy Changes

Proponent: Vice President for Business & Finance

Official Proposals: 

• Modifications are being proposed by EWU’s Investment Advisory Committee
• Adds provisions for investment in Separately Managed Accounts administered by the Washington State Treasurer’s Office pursuant to RCW 43.250
• Increases the maximum maturity of a purchased security from five years to ten years
• New provision added to allow the investment portfolio to include a securities lending program

Summary: The purpose of the Investment Policy is to prescribe standards for the treasury portfolio of EWU. The changes that were made update the policy that was previously set in early December of 2019. 

In these changes, you can observe that there have been updates made to the Securities Lending Program and other minor updates. The budget has been something that has been discussed a lot since the pandemic impacted EWU and essentially every other university, so you can expect changes to update pretty frequently in the coming months.

If you are looking for a complete breakdown in the changes that were made you can access them here: https://in.ewu.edu/policies/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/2022/07/EWU-202-02_TreasuryPortfolio_FirstRead.pdf.

If you are looking to read all of the in depth changes that have been made, you can click the link attached to read more: https://inside.ewu.edu/policies/knowledge-base/category/review-policies-in-process/.