UNM Policy Office

A Short History of the UNM Policy Office

In 1990, David McKinney, UNM's then Vice President for Business and Finance, recognized a need for a formal business policy manual to codify policies and procedures that had been issued over time through a series of individual memoranda. To that end, he appointed UNM employees Carol Stephens and Yolanda Moya to a two-year project to develop a manual and processes for policy approval and ongoing development. On November 1, 1991, the first edition of the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual was issued and contained approximately 50 policies. Copies of the manual were distributed to all UNM departments. Staffed by Carol and Yolanda, the UNM Business Policies Office then became a permanent office.

On September 12, 1996, with the assistance of the Office of University Counsel and the President’s Office, a comprehensive revision of the Board of Regents’ Policy Manual was completed, which standardized the policies' format and eliminated the need for a lengthy set of appendices. Copies of the revised manual were issued to members of the Board of Regents and to key UNM administrators.

In 1997, online versions of both the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual and the Board of Regents’ Policy Manual were developed, featuring dynamic links and search functions. As of January 29, 1999, the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual has existed only in an online format. The manual’s scope eventually expanded to include administrative policies and the department was renamed the UNM Policy Office.

On January 1, 2012, Carol and Yolanda retired from UNM, after 20 years of service in the Policy Office and many prior years of service to other units. Under their stewardship, the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual and the Board of Regents’ Policy Manual grew collectively to contain over 250 policies.

Executive Vice President for Administration David Harris conducted a search for a new head of the UNM Policy Office and chose Pamina Deutsch, who now serves as the University Policy and Administrative Planning Director. Having worked in the Office of University Counsel for over 19 years, Pamina brought considerable institutional knowledge to the position, including a familiarity with UNM's policies. In recent years, Pamina worked in the areas of research and technology law and served as a Senior Paralegal and Sponsored Research Project Specialist.

Since assuming the UNM Policy Office position on February 1, 2012, Pamina initiated a comprehensive review of the Regents' Policy Manual policies, many of which had not been updated since they were first issued in 1996. She works with the Regents' new Ad Hoc Policy Committee on that continuing effort.

Pamina also oversaw an updating and consolidation of the Policy Office's 15-year-old websites. This new consolidated website complies with the University's current Web content and accessibility standards. In conjunction with launching the new website, she also renamed the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual the University Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual to more accurately reflect its contents.

On September 3, 2013, Bonnie Leigh Reifsteck joined the Policy Office as the new University Policy Specialist. Bonnie Leigh has worked at UNM for eight years in various capacities, both on Main Campus and at the Health Sciences Center.

The official, current versions of all policies can be found on the UNM Policy Office website, http://policy.unm.edu. The historical versions included here are up to date as of 12-31-2016; for other historical documents, please contact the UNM Policy Office at policy@unm.edu.