The Policy and Communications unit of Information Technology facilitates the development of information technology policies, rules, guidelines and procedures. IT Policy participates with the Campus Security Committee as well as other University constituents to develop, implement and maintain University-level IT policies and works to educate the campus community on matters of policy, law, and best practices when accessing and using electronic data. Comments regarding the material found in the categories defined below should be directed to oit-security@wmich.edu.
Policy: A document that communicates compliance in matters as they pertain to the University's data and computing assets. IT policies are initiated by the Campus Information Security Committee or brought forth by other constituents of the University community. Policies are intended to be dynamic and require annual review in order to maintain revelance with best practices.
Rule: Similar to a policy but intended to describe the operations, definitions, and constraints of the use of computing resources.
Guidelines: Recommended actions and operational guides for users of systems and resources. Guidelines are created collaboratively with subject matter experts from various computing support units throughout the University. Guidelines incorporate best practices.
Procedures: Tasks that should be performed to achieve a desired outcome. Procedures can be created by central IT or departmental groups.
