Addressing Feedback and Comments

It is important to make a good-faith effort to enable employees to provide feedback and, where appropriate, to incorporate revisions to address relevant concerns. Policy Owners are not required to adopt non-technical suggestions, but must consider them. Policy Owners are not typically required to respond to comments, but in some cases, it may be necessary to formally acknowledge comments from major stakeholder groups and indicate how they will be addressed.

Note: "comments" is the official legal term for written input on a proposed rule, while "feedback" is typically used for general opinions, surveys, or early discussions with stakeholders during policy drafting. Most Policy Office documentation will use the terms interchangeably.

A few recommendations for addressing feedback:

  • Apply changes and clarifications consistently throughout the document.
  • Comments may mention one iteration of an issue; scan the rest of the proposed policy for similar issues.
  • Comments may ask who performs a specific task; ensure roles are clear and that Active Voice is being used.
  • Comments may request that a rule be changed or clarified; consider these requests carefully and, if possible, adjust the stated requirements appropriately without altering the fundamental intent of the proposed policy.
  • If a comment asks a question, it is often a recommendation to incorporate the answer into the text, not a question that should be answered within the comment pane.
  • Requests for clarification should always be accommodated.
  • Not all comments will be relevant or actionable.

Reach out to the Policy Office for additional guidance on addressing or incorporating feedback.

  1. Following each consultation period, take all feedback received into consideration. Review each comment and determine whether any revisions to the proposed policy are needed, and record basic reasoning around comments that will not be incorporated. One preferred method for dispositioning comments is to use a table with the following headings:
    1. Theme (optional, helpful for larger sets of comments)
    2. Comments (or groups of similar comments)
    3. Initial Thoughts (how the proposed policy could be revised or why it shouldn’t be)
    4. Further Discussion (thoughts after talking each comment through with partners e.g.,  Stakeholders, Committees, Policy Office, SME, or your Supervisor)
    5. Outcome (how the proposed policy was revised based on each comment, for the record)
  2. When all comments have been carefully considered and documented, make appropriate revisions to the proposed policy and supplemental documents. Track Changes should be used and saved, and a clean version of the proposed policy should be provided to the Policy Office for the next phase of development.
  3. Once Consultation is complete, summarize the types of feedback received and the types of revisions made. This step will advise the Summary of Feedback you’ll provide for the Responsible Official during Approval and Issuance, as well as responses you may provide to major campus stakeholders.

Additional Resources

Questions or comments may be sent to the Policy Office.