Administrative Regulations:
Changes in Process to Allow for Greater Participation

Active engagement in matters of governance has long characterized Maricopa's internal community.

Members of that community are seldom reluctant to voice opinions on policy issues through e-mails, web postings, or appearances at Governing Board meetings and similar gatherings.

That Maricopa's governance system values this engagement is no doubt reflected in the administrative regulation process that the Governing Board implemented some years ago. Now, thanks to procedural changes that were approved earlier this year, the means to make a difference in that process are even greater.

Administrative regulations are District-wide statements and directives that issue ultimately from the Chancellor. The procedures for adopting regulations have always called for an opportunity for the internal community to comment on any proposed regulation. The new changes serve to expand that opportunity.

Any group or individual from the internal community may initiate an administrative regulation. The adoption process begins if a District vice chancellor chooses effectively to sponsor that proposed regulation.
The new changes to the process for adopting administrative regulations insert a new step at the early stages with the intent of fostering internal dialog. Now, following the vice chancellor's review (and preliminary support) of a proposed regulation, he or she submits the "draft regulation to the president of each district-wide employee job group, with invitation to provide preliminary comment" to that vice chancellor.

The vice chancellor may "also elect to send the draft to various leadership councils as appropriate for the topic."

With the new changes, the next stage in the adoption process-submission of the proposed regulation as an information item to the Chancellor's Executive Council (CEC)-may occur "no less than 30 days following submission of draft language to employee job group presidents."

The modifications to the administrative regulation adoption process implicitly suggest that employee leadership make available to their constituents the substance of new regulations under consideration. Moreover, the prescribed 30-day minimum seeks to afford ample opportunity for those constituents' review.

That this preliminary review by employee group membership occurs early in the adoption process further ensures a meaningful opportunity for input; the proposed regulation is, by that point, subject to substantial revision.

Opportunities for even more comment, however, remain. After the vice chancellor submits the proposed regulation for the first time to CEC, it is posted on the administrative regulations web page maintained under the auspices of the District's Manager of Governance and Ombuds Services. Comments to the proposed regulation are solicited "for a minimum period of two weeks."

Those comments are not superfluous; rather, the process mandates that any comments received at this stage be "reviewed for consideration of redraft of proposed language."

After a second review by CEC, as well as one by the General Counsel, the proposed regulation may be either approved by the Chancellor or returned for further consideration.

To find out more about the Maricopa Community College District's governance structure, visit http://www.dist.maricopa.edu/gvpolicy/.

Published in the Fall 2004 Edition of In Brief