Stanford
Administrative Guide

What's New

Policy changes, deletions, additions

Note: Simple "housekeeping" changes (those that do not include a change to the policy's meaning) are in the following section in the lower section of the page.

June 13, 2025

AGM 5.3.1: Purchasing Requisitions

  • Retitled to “Purchase Requisitions” from “Requisition Processing” to align to other memo names of types of purchasing methods, and to focus on the overarching description rather than tactical processing.
  • Updated to streamline policy language, ensure clear linkage to over-arching compliance requirements, and to move procedural content to Fingate.
  • Updated references to processes, thresholds, and systems that have changed since previous publication. (I.e., contract initiation system)
  • There were no substantive changes made to policies in terms of definitions, guiding principles, and/or supporting systems and processes.

April 17, 2025

AGM 2.1.15: Trial Period

  • Removed section 2.e., previously titled “Layoff Trial Period”
  • Renumbered former section 2.f to 2. e, and updated the title to remove reference to layoff trial period

AGM 2.1.17: Layoffs

  • Removed reference to layoff trial period from section 3.e.3

AGM 5.3.3: Purchasing Cards

  • Updated to streamline policy language, ensure clear linkage to over-arching compliance requirements (i.e., IRS requirements), and to move procedural content to Fingate.
  • There were no other substantive changes made to policies in terms of definitions of expenses, guiding principles, and/or supporting systems and processes.

March 25, 2025

AGM 2.1.2: Recruiting and Hiring of Regular Staff

  • AGM 2.1.2 was edited throughout to clarify Affirmative Action requirements.

March 24, 2025

AGM 4.2.1: Receiving and Processing Gifts

  • Added new section 4.2.1.2.d Cryptocurrency Assets with instructions related to delivering a gift of cryptocurrency to the university.
  • Moved existing sections down with new letter code:
    • 4.2.1.2.e Credit Cards: formerly d, now e.
    • 4.2.1.2.f Electronic transfers: formerly e, now f.
    • 4.2.1.2.g Memorial and Honorarium Gifts: formerly f, now g.
    • 4.2.1.2.h Gifts of Real or Personal Property: formerly g, now h.
    • 4.2.1.2.i Special Types of Gifts: formerly h, now i.

March 13, 2025

Chapter 5

  • Changed name of chapter from “Purchasing and Payments” to “Procurement Activities”

AGM 5.1.1: Procurement Policies

  • All sections were updated to:
    • Streamline language, ensuring clear linkage to over-arching compliance requirements (i.e., federal requirements), and to move procedural content to Fingate.
    • Update to align to current operational procedures and systems
    • Reorganize and streamline to absorb and decommission
      • AGM 5.1.2: Procurement Relationships
      • AGM 5.3.5: Payment Policies

AGM 4.4.1: Fundraising Approval and Priority-Setting

  • Removed Applicability note at the top of the policy.
  • Renumbered throughout the policy.
  • Clarified instructions in Section 3, including adding Section 3.d.
  • Edited Section 5.b to include guidance on opportunistic fundraising.

February 27, 2025

AGM 8.2.1: University Events

  • Added section 4 to provide guidance about food trucks on campus.
  • Renumbered "Other Information Sources" as section 5.

February 18, 2025

AGM 4.1.1: Gifts to the University

  • Added section 1.b. (4) to clarify the handling of licenses and rights to use property, in particular software licenses and credits for technology platforms. 

January 30, 2025

AGM 1.5.6: Institutional Statements

  • Added two footnotes, consistent with the statement approved by the Faculty Senate on May 30, 2024.
  • Added a link to the list of Stanford Academic Organization Executive Officers.

AGM 2.1.2 Recruiting and Hiring of Regular Staff

  • Added section e. Driving Related to Job Requirements.
  • Updated Section 3.a. (2) to clarify that the responsibilities of the Local Human Resources Office now include reviewing certificate and license requirements outlined in the Position Summary of a job description.

AGM 2.1.7: Sick Time: Regular Staff Employees, Regular Academic Staff-Research and Regular Academic Staff-Professional Librarians

  • Revised section 2.c. to:
    • Reflect the new, broader definition of a victim of a crime under the law, which now includes an individual against whom a "qualifying act of violence" is committed.
    • Include the definition of "qualifying act of violence."
    • Reflect the expanded list of reasons for which an employee may use sick time when they are the victim of a crime.
    • Reflect that employers must now also provide an employee with sick time for those same reasons when a family member is a victim of a crime.
  • Revised section 2.g. to clarify that family sick time should be used when an employee is taking time off to assist a family member, which under the law includes a designated person when they or a family member is a victim of a crime.   

AGM 2.1.8: Miscellaneous Authorized Absences

  • Revised section 2(6) to reflect the new, broader definition of a victim of a crime, which now includes an individual against whom a "qualifying act of violence" is committed.

AGM 2.1.22: Sick Time for Temporary and Casual Staff Employees

  • Revised section 2.c. to:
    • Reflect the new, broader definition of a victim of a crime under the law, which now includes an individual against whom a "qualifying act of violence" is committed.
    • Include the definition of "qualifying act of violence."
    • Reflect the expanded list of reasons for which an employee may use sick time when they are the victim of a crime.
    • Reflect that employers must now also provide an employee with sick time for those same reasons when a family member is a victim of a crime.
  • Revised section 2.d. to clarify that family sick time should be used when an employee is taking time off to assist a family member, which under the law includes a designated person when they or a family member is a victim of a crime.   

AGM 2.3.1: Survivor Benefit Plans 

  • Revised references to contact Stanford Benefits to instead contact the University HR Service Team throughout AGM 2.3.1.
  • Revised section 5 to clarify eligibility, specify "work-related incident," and updated the office name.

AGM 2.3.5: Disability and Family Leaves 

  • Revised the Applicability and Notes sections with an updated link to the Labor Relations & Collective Bargaining resource.
  • Revised section 1.b.1. to specify a 30-day advance notice requirement for family or medical leaves and clarify that in unforeseeable situations, notice should be provided as soon as possible to the immediate supervisor, local Human Resources office, and the disability administrator.
  • Revised section 1.b.4.and 5.g. to state that Disability and Leave Services updates employee records in the Human Resources Management System during disability leave, manages timecards, and ensures combined pay from the disability administrator and Stanford does not exceed 100% of base pay.
  • Revised section 5.a. to include exposures in the coverage for work-related absences and replaces "necessary medical, surgical, and hospital services" with "certified medical benefits" for clarity.
  • Revised section 5.b. to clarify the coverage for work-related disability provisions, by specifying that they apply to contingent employees (e.g., temporary and casual employees) and student employees, referencing the definition provided in Guide Memo 2.2.1: Definitions.
  • Updated title for section, 5.c. from ”Reporting and Recording Work Injuries and Related Absences From Work” to “Reporting Work-related Incidents and Associated Absences From Work.” Also, added a link to the Stanford Risk Management and Insurance website.

AGM 10.3.1: Sick Time for Student Hourly Employees

  • Revised section 4.c. to:
    • Reflect the new, broader definition of a victim of a crime under the law, which now includes an individual against whom a "qualifying act of violence" is committed.
    • Include the definition of "qualifying act of violence."
    • Reflect the expanded list of reasons for which an employee may use sick time when they are the victim of a crime.
    • Reflect that employers must now also provide an employee with sick time for those same reasons when a family member is a victim of a crime.
  • Revised section 4.d. to:
    • Clarify that family sick time should be used when an employee is taking time off to assist a family member, which under the law includes a designated person when they or a family member is a victim of a crime.
    • Include that student hourly employees can also use family sick time for a designated person. This change is consistent with changes we previously made to AGM 2.1.22.  

December 10, 2024

AGM 2.1.6: Vacations

  • Removed reference to Terminal Vacation in 1.d.2.
  • Removed section 2.g.2.

AGM 2.1.7: Sick Time: Regular Staff Employees, Regular Academic Staff-Research and Regular Academic Staff-Professional Librarians

  • Removed reference to Terminal Vacation in section 1.c.

AGM 2.1.17: Layoffs

  • Removed references to Terminal Vacation in sections 4.c, 4.d, and 4.e.
  • Removed section 6.c.2.

AGM 3.3.2: Expendable Funds Investment, Return Allocation and Buffer Policy

  • Hoover has been added to section 1 under Zero-Interest Accounts in the list of units who receive Expendable Funds Pool (EFP) payout. 

November 20, 2024

New policy: AGM 1.5.6: Institutional Statements

  • A policy statement for Stanford University leaders and administrators who are speaking for the institution.

November 6, 2024

AGM 5.4

  • Changed name of subchapter from “Travel and Business Expenses” to “Business and Travel Expenses.”

AGM 5.4.2: Business and Travel Expenses

  • Updated to streamline policy language, ensure clear linkage to over-arching compliance requirements (i.e., IRS requirements), and to move procedural content to Fingate.
  • A statement was added to clarify that schools and units are now solely responsible for approving any transaction that exceeds business and travel expense maximums.
  • There were no other substantive changes made to policies in terms of definitions of expenses, guiding principles, and/or supporting systems and processes.
     

November 4, 2024

AGM 4.2.1: Receiving and Processing Gifts

Revised Section 4.2.1.2.c to include the following updates:

  • Removed instructions related to delivering a stock gift in paper certificate form.
  • Changed the first paragraph to indicate the types of securities the university accepts.
  • (i) Broker-to-Broker Transfer: added the hyperlink to the Giving to Stanford website with gift transfer instructions.
  • (ii) Give securities you hold in certificate form: removed old instructions and request that the Gift Securities team be contacted directly.
  • Removed (ii) Mail, (iii) Hand Delivery, and (2) Certificate is Excess of Gift.
  • Added (iii) Give mutual funds, bonds, securities held by a transfer agent, or foreign or restricted stock and (iv) Other types of assets.

November 1, 2024

AGM 2.3.5: Disability and Family Leaves

  • In section 1.b.3, clarified the role of disability administrator in the disability leave process.
  • In section 6.c.2, updated the length of the short-term disability plan for non-California employees to 26 weeks.
  • Updated 6.e.1, 6.e.2, and 7.b.3 to reflect a change from 90 to 180 days of consecutive approved disability leave required to be eligible for Long-Term Disability.

September 11, 2024

AGM 9.2.1: Organization Chart: Provost

  • Chart was updated to include the Special Advisor to the Provost on University Free Speech role.
     

Housekeeping Changes

Changes do not affect policy content, but may include corrected cross-references to other policies, corrected titles, change of authority for the policy, changed URLs, addresses, and phone numbers, or very minor text changes for clarity. Policies are not re-dated when housekeeping edits are made; the date is only updated if the policy content is changed.

April 3, 2025

AGM 9.2.1: Organizational Chart: Provost

  • Updated title of Vice Provost of Faculty Advancement.

March 12, 2025

AGM 1.6.1: Privacy Policy

  • Updated 1.6.1.2.c.(5) to remove an erroneous URL and add a contact for questions.

AGM 1.1.1: University Code of Conduct

  • Switched out the Protected Identity Harm Reporting link in section 3 with the Harassment/Discrimination-Title VI link.

March 4, 2025

AGM 8.2.1: University Events

  • Changed "Office of Student Activities" to "Office of Student Engagement" throughout.

January 30, 2025

AGM 5.2.4 Surplus Property Sales

  • Updated links to the Property Management Manual throughout.

January 8, 2025

AGM 9.1.1: Organization Chart: President

  • Updated Chief of Staff title and added Vice President for University Affairs & Secretary of the Board of Trustees role to the chart.

November 21, 2024

AGM 2.2.1: Definitions

  • 2.2.b: Removed the word "not" from the first sentence.
  • 2.4: Updated links throughout section.

July 9, 2024

AGM 2.2.1 Definitions

  • Section 1.b: Updated definition for Non-tenure Line Professoriate. 

April 17, 2024

AGM 8.1.2 Mail Services

  • Updated references to Mail and Delivery Services to Mail and Package Services.
  • Changed Stanford ID Mail and Package Services address to 560 Fremont Road.

March 13, 2024

AGM 2.2.2: Out of State Employees

  • Corrected the link to the Report of Days Worked in California for Out-of-State Employees form in section f.

March 4, 2024

AGM 8.1.2: Mail Services

  • Removed the support phone number for interdepartmental mail questions.

January 24, 2024

AGM 1.8.1: Protection of Minors

  • Section 3.a.1: Changed "Housing Front Desk" to "Housing Service Center." 

January 8, 2024

AGM 1.7.1 

  • Updated link to SART exam information in section 3.

November 16, 2023

AGM 2.4.4

  • Section 2.a.1: Add clarification on situations covered.
  • Section 2.a.3: Removed reference to AGM 2.4.5.
  • Section 4.c: Changed references of Public Liability to General Liability.

AGM 8.4.2

  • Section 7.a: Removed reference to self-insure policy.
  • Section 7.c: Removed reference to organization not being required to pay for costs for losts or damage related to rented vehicles, and added link to Property and Liability Insurance information.

November 8, 2023

AGM 1.6.1: Privacy Policy

September 15, 2023

AGM 8.3.1: Capital Projects

  • Updated links throughout, including the Space Request Form.

September 7, 2023

AGM 2.4.4: Property and Liability Insurance

  • Section 2.3. Property Insurance>Deductible: Corrected a typo in the self-insured amount for each claim from $10,500 to $1,500,000.

July 13, 2023

AGM 10.2.2: Graduate Student Hourly Employment

  • Section 2.c, Table 1: Maximum Number of Hours of Hourly Employment Permitted per Week; language corrections for Summer Enrolled Students, F1 or J1 Visa holders, that had been mistakenly not included in a recent website migration. Also, reinstated footnote #4 underneath the table.

July 11, 2023

AGM 2.2.10: Gifts and Awards for University Employees

  • Authority: Changed "Controller" authority to the correct title, "Sr. Vice President for Finance."

May 7, 2023

AGM 11.6.1: Foreign Currency Hedging

  • Section 4: Approval Process: updated the link to submit a service request for FMS

March 8, 2023

AGM 1.1.1: Code of Conduct

February 7, 2023

AGM 6.1.1: Privacy and Access to Electronic Information

  • Throughout, updated the title of an authorizing official, the Senior Associate Vice President and Chief Risk Officer.

AGM 7.6.1: Accident and Incident Reporting

  • Throughout, updated the address of the Risk Management office.

February 6, 2023

AGM 2.2.1: Definitions

  • Section 3: Academic Staff: Clarified that teaching staff is comprised of Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Advanced Lecturers, and Artists-in-Residence. Updated the job titles for the professional library staff.

January 1, 2023

AGM 1.7.4: Equal Employment Opportunity, Non-Discrimination, and Affirmative Action Policy

  • Updated Section 2.a: Protection against Discrimination to include "reproductive health decision-making."