Have you ever had trouble gathering information regarding university processes or procedures from a UT System or UTSA policy or procedure statement…only to have your research efforts result in confusion?

Information security is an area that was once particularly difficult to research.  At one time there were several UTSA policies and procedures related to information security and confidential data.  The old Business Procedures Memoranda (BPM) series included three separate procedural statements: BPM 53 – Information Resources and Security Policy, BPM 66 – Protecting the Confidentiality of Social Security Numbers, and BPM 75 – Protecting the Confidentiality and Integrity of Digital Research.

The entire policy and procedures system lacked sufficient organization.  Policies, rules and regulations were housed in seven different locations and none of these structures were consistently organized or cross referenced.

In March 2007, UT System launched the UT System Policy Library which came about as a result of the System Policy Review Committee.  This committee also recommended the creation of the UT System Policy Office.  This office is charged with maintaining current policy information, providing guidance for the revision of existing policies, and the development of new policy statements and procedures.  A new numbering scheme was devised to identify System-wide policies, which are referenced as UTS followed by a number, and System Administration internal policies, denoted by INT and also followed by a number.  These new alphanumeric designations replaced previous numbering systems, including BPMs.

Information Security policy regulations are now housed in one location.  The new policy statement, UTS165 – Information Resources Use and Security, combined the previous policies - BPMs 53, 66, and 75.  A disposition table was created that allows users to look up the old BPM numbers and find the corresponding UTS or INT number.

More information about the UT System Policy Office is at http://www.utsystem.edu/policy.
The Disposition Table is at http://www.utsystem.edu/policy/dispostion.html.