Institutional Policies & Practices

• State Mandated Online Trainings

• Bridge - Training platform - the majority of university trainings are hosted through Bridge. 

• All employees are required to complete the Information Security Training, Ethics Training, and Prevent Sexual Harassment Training on an annual basis. 

• All employees must complete the Registrar's FERPA training (located at the bottom of the page) at the beginning of their tenure. 

• DSS Leadership has created internal training that will be hosted through Google Classroom dependent on employee role.

• DSS Student Records Release Form

• FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, is a federal law that pertains to the release of and access to student educational records. 

• Students requesting copies of their records must submit a written and signed request to that department. The copies will be ready for the student within a reasonable period of time following the submission of the written request. There is no charge to students for copies of their records. 

• Completed FERPA releases submitted through the Registrar are found in Colleague under Student Profile (XSPRO), Restrictions.

• Students may provide consent to contact within myDSS for matters related to their accommodations. They are found under “Informed Consent Release”. 

• DSS staff will only disclose accommodation information based on the “need-to-know” standard from FERPA. Disability diagnosis and subsequent information is not disclosed without a legitimate reason and permission from the student.

• For professional staff, they are expected to dress business casual. Visible piercings and tattoos are permissible with director approval. Jeans are allowed during the work week. The university celebrates Maroon Mondays, which are optional. Student staff may dress more casually than professional staff. Running shorts and spaghetti strap tops by themselves are not allowed in the work place.

• Freedom of expression in dress, hair and body modification is acceptable and encouraged. Staff is expected to demonstrate good judgment and professional taste. Staff who wear attire that is deemed inappropriate in this workplace will be addressed on an individual basis rather than subjecting all employees to a more stringent dress code for appropriate business attire. 

• URP: V.14.d Staff Attendance Vacation and Sick Leave Policy

• All staff must request time off in Oracle Cloud for all requests. Upon approval, staff will receive an email verification with approval, not approved or a request for more information. 

• Employees should confirm with their colleagues coverage of tasks prior to requesting vacation. 

• Requests may be denied if the time off would occur during the black out dates. 

• Black out dates are as follows:

  • The week leading up to a semester

  • The first two weeks of a semester (except for summer)

  • Finals week

• When needing to use sick time, notify the Director via text, chat or email as soon as possible. If staff needs to be out for 3 days or more in a row, a doctor's note is required. 

• Flex time (internal): most situations allow for the time off being flexed out in later hours of the day or on a different day, i.e. working orientation on the weekend and taking Monday off. Flex time must be approved by the Director. Flex time does not need to be documented in Oracle. 

URP: 05.405 Overtime and Compensatory Time for Staff: comp time and overtime must be approved by the employee’s supervisor BEFORE working the overage. All time cards will be reviewed by the director and verified as needed. 

• Time Reporting

  • Non-exempt staff: Time is entered in Oracle Cloud twice a month

  • Graduate assistants do not have to submit a timecard. Any time taken off should be made up within the same month if possible.

• Staff Performance Evaluations

• All professional employees must submit their goals in Oracle Cloud that are subject to review and approval by their supervisor annually.  

• Notices are sent out annually by HR. 

• Employees are expected to track their progress on their goals independently for submission during the evaluation period.

• Staff will have an evaluation annually conducted by their reporting supervisor. 

• Phones at TWU: TWU employees use RingCentral to manage phone calls. Employees may need to text students or other personnel from time to time through the RingCentral application. Employees are expected to adhere to professional communication practices when conversing with a student or personnel via text and via phone call. 

  • TWU employees may need to make personal telephone calls from time-to-time during working hours. Normally, such use does not result in additional costs or damage to TWU and generally will not hinder the day-to-day operations of an office. Incidental use of TWU telephones during working hours by TWU employees for local calls is not considered to be a misapplication of state property and is permissible so long as it does not unduly interfere with the employee's assigned responsibilities or the normal functioning of the department. Long distance phone calls, including the TEX-AN lines, are restricted to official University business. Personal long-distance phone calls at the expense of the University are not permitted under any circumstances.

• URP: 01.315 Records Management Email:

  • This policy applies to email used within Texas Woman’s University and email used conjointly with the Internet, and does not supersede any state or federal laws, or any other agency policies regarding confidentiality, information dissemination, or standards of conduct. Generally, e-mail should be used only for legitimate state business; however, brief and occasional e-mail messages of a personal nature may be sent and received if the following conditions are met.

  • IT - Email

• URP: 04.700 Computer & Software Acceptable Use Policy

  • Every employee is required to complete the Information Security Training annually in Bridge.

Professional staff inventory: 

• Staff computers, printers, phones, etc. are all tracked internally on the Department Administration spreadsheet. 

  • The spreadsheet is managed by the Business Manager and updated quarterly. 

AT Equipment inventory: 

• All equipment for check out by students is maintained in myDSS. This should be reviewed by the business manager each term for accuracy.

Student staff is responsible for collecting the office mail from the OMB mailroom. This is done on a weekly basis.  

All deliveries should go to 1200 Frame St. Denton, TX 76209.  

Our address: 1315 N. Bell Ave. Ste. 106 Denton, TX 76204

• The copy machine can be used at any time for official university business. 

• Limited personal use of printing is permissible. 

• Student staff are responsible for refilling the paper trays and submitting a purchase request when more supplies are needed. Requests for more supplies via chat, verbal request or email may not be honored; the purchase request form is the preferred route to request more supplies.