§18B-1-6 Rulemaking.
§18B-1-6. Rulemaking.
(a) The Commission is hereby empowered to promulgate, adopt, amend or repeal rules, in accordance with the provisions of article three-a, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, subject to the provisions of section three of this article.
(b) The Council is hereby empowered to promulgate, adopt, amend or repeal rules in accordance with the provisions of article three-a, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code and subject to the provisions of section three of this article. This grant of rule-making power extends only to those areas over which the Council has been granted specific authority and jurisdiction by law.
(c) As it relates to the authority granted to governing boards of state institutions of higher education to promulgate, adopt, amend or repeal any rule under the provisions of this code:
(1) "Rule" means any regulation, guideline, directive, standard, statement of policy or interpretation of general application which has institutionwide effect or which affects the rights, privileges or interests of employees, students or citizens. Any regulation, guideline, directive, standard, statement of policy or interpretation of general application that meets this definition is a rule for the purposes of this section.
(2) Regulations, guidelines or policies established for individual units, divisions, departments or schools of the institution, which deal solely with the internal management or responsibilities of a single unit, division, department or school or with academic curricular policies that do not constitute a mission change for the institution, are excluded from this subsection, except for the requirements relating to posting.
(3) The Commission and Council each shall promulgate a rule to guide the development and approval of rules made by their respective governing boards, including the governing boards of Marshall University and West Virginia University. The rules promulgated by the Commission and Council shall include, but are not limited to, the following provisions which shall be included in the rule on rules adopted by each governing board of a state institution of higher education:
(A) A procedure to ensure that public notice is given and that the right of interested parties to have a fair and adequate opportunity to respond is protected, including providing for a thirty-day public comment period prior to final adoption of a rule;
(B) Designation of a single location where all proposed and approved rules, guidelines and other policy statements are posted and can be accessed by the public; and
(C) A procedure to maximize Internet access to all proposed and approved rules, guidelines and other policy statements to the extent technically and financially feasible.
(d) Nothing in this section requires that any rule reclassified or transferred by the Commission or the Council under this section be promulgated again under the procedures set out in article three-a, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code unless the rule is amended or modified.
(e) The Commission and Council each shall file with the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability any rule it proposes to promulgate, adopt, amend or repeal under the authority of this article.
(f) The governing boards of Marshall University and West Virginia University, respectively, shall promulgate and adopt any rule which they are required to adopt by this chapter or chapter eighteen-c of this code no later than the first day of July, two thousand six. On and after this date:
(1) Any rule of either governing board which meets the definition set out in subsection (c) of this section and which has not been promulgated and adopted by formal vote of the appropriate governing board is void and may not be enforced;
(2) Any authority granted by this code which inherently requires the governing board to promulgate and adopt a rule is void until the governing board complies with the provisions of this section.
(g) Within thirty days of the adoption of a rule, including repeal or amendment of an existing rule, the governing boards of Marshall University and West Virginia University, respectively, shall furnish to the Commission or the Council, as appropriate, a copy of each rule which has been formally adopted;
(h) Not later than the first day of October, two thousand five, and annually thereafter, each governing board of a state institution of higher education shall file with the Commission or the Council, as appropriate, a list of all institutional rules that were in effect for that institution on the first day of July of that year, including the most recent date on which each rule was considered and adopted, amended or repealed by the governing board. For all rules adopted, amended or repealed after the effective date of this section, the list shall include a statement by the chair of the governing board certifying that the governing board has complied with the provisions of this section when each listed rule was adopted.