Policy Directory by Glossary Terms

A situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, faculty, staff, patients, and visitors occurring on University Grounds, at a separate campus, or surrounding areas.

Text, numbers, graphics, images, sound, or video and in any format, electronic or paper. The University regards data maintained in support of a functional unit's operation as University data if they meet at least one of the following criteria: If

1. at least two administrative operations of the University use the data and consider the data essential;
2. integration of related information requires the data;
3. the University needs to verify the quality of the data to comply with legal and administrative requirements for supporting statistical and historical information externally;
4. a broad cross section of University employees refers to or maintains the data;
5. the University needs the data to plan; or
6. created, received, maintained, and/or transmitted in the course of meeting the University’s teaching, research, public service, and healthcare missions.

Some examples of such University-owned data include student course grades, patient records, employee salary information, research, vendor payments, and the University's annual Common Data Set.

University (Academic Division, the Medical Center, and the College at Wise) officials who have responsibility for confirming that requests for access correctly map to what the data users need in the way of access to the specific components of a given application required to perform job duties, and for which they have appropriate training. (The Data Access Approver will be either the Data Steward, the Deputy Data Steward, or the Executive Data Steward.)

The entire collection of data for which a University employee assigned the role and responsibilities of a Data Trustee, Data Steward, or Deputy Data Steward is responsible. Each Data Domain (or subdomain) has a Data Trustee and a Data Steward. Deputy Data Stewards are appointed as needed by Data Stewards to complete data stewardship activities. The data domain also includes rules and processes related to the data.

University officials who have operational oversight for the life cycle of a specific data domain including the definition, intake, and usage of the data. Data Stewards will oversee the development, maintenance, and enforcement of appropriate policies, standards, and procedures for the use of data in their functional areas, including defining criteria for data access authorization and have final sign-off authority for users seeking to access, retrieve, manipulate, or view data for their respective data domains.

Data Stewards are assigned by, and are accountable to, Data Trustees. Institutional data stewards help define, implement, and enforce data management policies and procedures within their specific data domain. Institutional data stewards have delegated responsibility for all aspects of how data is acquired, used, stored and protected throughout its entire lifecycle from acquisition through disposition.

Senior University officials who have planning and policy-level responsibilities for a large subset of the institution’s data resources. They: (1) oversee the implementation of this policy for their data domains; (2) determine the appropriate classification of institutional data (highly sensitive, sensitive, internal use, or public) in consultation with executive management and appropriate others; and (3) appoint Data Stewards for their data domains.

Data trustees provide a broad, university-wide view of data, approve policies, resolve questions of procedure, and ensure that data plans are consistent with and in support of university strategic plans.

Individuals who acknowledge acceptance of their responsibilities, as described in this policy, and its associated standards and procedures, to protect and appropriately use data to which they are given access; and meet all prerequisite requirements, e.g., attend training before being granted access.

A calendar day.

The UVA official who makes final determinations on allegations of research misconduct and any responsive institutional actions. Currently, this individual is the Vice President for Research.

Decision Brief: A written summarization of any funding increase for all capital projects.

An individual who has voluntarily informed the licensee or registrant, in writing, of their pregnancy and the estimated date of conception. The declaration remains in effect until the declared pregnant worker withdraws the declaration in writing or is no longer pregnant.

An award where expenditures and outstanding commitments have exceeded the total amount budgeted.

A student enrolled in any undergraduate or graduate degree-granting program at the University. Graduate degree-seeking students include those students enrolled in one of the University’s two professional schools (Law, Medicine).

A reduction in work level that may be voluntary, involuntary, or disciplinary.

• Voluntary Demotion - Is initiated or requested by the employee.
• Involuntary Demotion - Occurs when the position held by an employee is reclassified to a lower level, is due to inadequate performance, or a matter of organizational necessity (such as reductions-in-force).
• Disciplinary Demotion - Is imposed upon the employee as a disciplinary measure.

The designated administrator of a school/department/unit having responsibility for development and execution of a Continuity of Operations Plan pursuant to this Policy.

Master Keys issued to Deans/Department Heads for the access needs of multiple users within a department subject to approval by and in accordance with the Facilities Management Lock Shop’s key control practices for secure and auditable use.

Mail/Correspondence sent out by UVa departments for delivery to addresses outside the University system.

Individuals appointed as needed by Data Stewards to complete data stewardship activities, such as authorizing or rejecting access requests based upon approval criteria established by the Data Stewards who appoint them.

A financial instrument or contract whose value is derived from the performance of underlying market factors, such as interest rates. For purposes of the policy, they are used to manage the risk of interest rate fluctuations.

Persons designated to extend conditional offers of employment to faculty members in the academic areas of the University on behalf of the University. The president, the executive vice president and provost, and academic deans and the University librarian are designated academic hiring officials. Hiring authority may be delegated in writing by one of these individuals with the written approval of the president or the executive vice president and provost.

An employee whose assigned job duties and responsibilities are considered critical to maintaining the essential operations of the University when changes in operating status occur due to an emergency event. Designated employees are first responders needed to meet the immediate needs of students, patients, research programs, or general operations.

The University, Medical Center, or College at Wise employee authorized to determine when an individual in a safety-sensitive function may be removed from duty or cause employees to be removed from covered duties and to make required decisions in the testing and evaluation processes. The DER also receives test results and other communications for the employer, consistent with the requirements of this part. Service agents cannot act as DERs.

• Service Agent: Any person or entity, other than an employee of the employer, who provides services specified under 49 CFR Part 40, to employers and/or employees in connection with Department of Transportation drug and alcohol testing requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, collectors, breath alcohol technicians (BATs) and screening test technicians (STTs), laboratories, medical review officers (MROs), substance abuse professionals, and consortium/third-party administrators (C/TPAs). To act as service agents, persons and organizations must meet the qualifications set forth in applicable sections of this part. Service agents are not employers for the purpose of implementing FMCSA drug and alcohol testing regulations.

An individual who is authorized to extend a conditional offer of employment to individuals on behalf of the University. The president, vice presidents, academic deans of the University’s schools, and the University librarian are designated hiring officials. Hiring authority may be delegated in writing by one of these individuals with the approval of the president or the appropriate vice president.

The financial data that is used for funding other than gifts and grants such as discretionary, state appropriations, Equipment Trust Fund, including earned revenue such as tuition and Facilities & Administrative costs.

An annual plan jointly developed by the supervisor and employee that documents the employee’s career development goals and supporting actions for the performance period.

Methods of digitally communicating to constituents including, but not limited to:

• Email
• Text
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat)
• Websites
• Digital Advertising Channels
• Marketing Automation Platforms
• Social Listening Tools

Care, guidance, control, or supervision of minors in one-to-one or group settings.

Costs which can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored program or project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity that can be directly assigned to such activities readily with a high degree of accuracy.

A system for electronically placing an employee's earnings in a checking or savings account at the Federal Reserve affiliated bank or financial institution of the employee's choice; also known as Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).

Information contained in an education record of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed.

A mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

As defined in Va. Code Ann. §44-146.16 means (i) any man-made disaster, including any condition following an attack by any enemy or foreign nation upon the United States resulting in substantial damage of property or injury to persons in the United States including by use of bombs, missiles, shell fire, or nuclear, radiological, chemical, or biological means or other weapons or by overt paramilitary actions; terrorism, foreign and domestic; cyber incidents; and any industrial, nuclear, or transportation accident, explosion, conflagration, power failure, resources shortage, or other condition such as sabotage, oil spills, and other injurious environmental contaminations that threaten or cause damage to property, human suffering, hardship, or loss of life and (ii) any natural disaster, including any hurricane, tornado, storm, flood, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, earthquake, drought, fire, communicable disease of public health threat, or other natural catastrophe resulting in damage, hardship, suffering, or possible loss of life.

An occurrence of a natural catastrophe, technological accident, or human-caused event that has resulted in severe property damage, deaths, and/or multiple injuries.

A formal action taken in response to unacceptable performance or misconduct. May take the form of written notices, suspension without pay, or reduction in salary, demotion, or termination. The specific action taken will depend on the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding the offense, and the employee's previous record. In all instances, both for job performance and personal conduct, the University reserves the right to take such action as appropriate and as determined by the employee’s management.

A process that involves reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding misconduct or unacceptable performance to determine if disciplinary action is warranted.

Inequitable treatment by the University of a person based on one or more of that person's protected characteristics or statuses, excepting any treatment permitted or required by law.

Final destruction or transfer of records to the proper archival repository. 

Any structured process in which a neutral assists parties to a dispute in reaching a voluntary settlement by means of dispute resolution processes such as mediation, conciliation, facilitation, partnering, fact-finding, neutral evaluation, use of ombuds or any other proceeding leading to a voluntary settlement. (This does not include arbitration.)

A quasi endowment that permits divestment of principal provided (1) it has been invested in the account for at least five years and (2) divestment is made according to the plan submitted at the time the request for the endowment creation was made.

A gift account established with the University of Virginia Foundation for the benefit of the University or a University-Associated Organization (UAO), or a combination thereof. The DAF allows donors to make an immediate, irrevocable charitable contribution and receive an immediate charitable income tax deduction while maintaining the flexibility to make gift recommendations from the DAF to the University (including schools, departments, or units) or UAOs over time, according to the terms and conditions of the DAF agreement.

A set of documents submitted by the candidate for renewal, tenure, or promotion consideration.

A person who is authorized to drive University-owned vehicles on University business. 

Controlled substance use and alcohol screenings conducted (1) at any of the following intervals: pre-employment/pre-duty, reasonable suspicion, random, post-accident, return-to-duty, follow-up alcohol and drug testing; and (2) pre-employment and annual searches of the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (CDL-holders only) of applicants for employment and current employees.