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General university policies

Faculty and research policies

Student/student life policies

Staff and administrative policies

New policies and recent revisions

For a flowchart of the process whereby a University Policy is officially created or revised, see:

Academic/administrative policy
approval process

Student policy approval process

A University Policy is a rule that has been officially sanctioned by the president of Carnegie Mellon University, and that generally has university-wide applicability. A policy may include governing principles, it may either mandate or constrain action, it may ensure compliance with laws, or it may mitigate the university's risk. It must be approved by the President's Council, a senior-level decision-making body of Carnegie Mellon, and ultimately by the president, before it becomes official policy.

Many departmental or divisional procedures and guidelines, although useful and important, do not meet the criteria above, and therefore they are not considered university policies. Some department/division practices are linked to this site (e.g., bookstore practices) as a convenience to the Carnegie Mellon community. Some other information, such as the NSF Grant Policy Manual, is not specific to Carnegie Mellon but is included for convenient access.

The policies and guidelines presented here are generally broken into two sections. The section at the beginning of each (the "editor's notes") identifies a contact person or department who can help with specific questions about that policy. It may also contain other pertinent information or links to related documents. This section is not part of the official policy, but is merely supplemental information. It is followed by the actual text of the university policy.

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