| Mission and Objectives | 2 |
| of the | 2 |
| Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine | 2 |
| VCOM Statement of Commitment to the Students, the Medically Underserved Regions, and the International Community | 6 |
| History of the College | 7 |
| Accreditation and State Licensure | 9 |
| 142 E. Ontario Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2864 | 9 |
| Phone: (888) 626-9262 Email: predoc@osteopathic.org | 9 |
| Recruitment Priorities | 11 |
| VCOM has a commitment to recruiting additional students from all rural areas. It is VCOM’s commitment to meet the physician shortage in rural areas throughout the Eastern and Mid-United States, especially within Appalachia and the Delta regions as a ... | 11 |
| VCOM is committed to producing physicians to meet society's health care needs. VCOM seeks students who are compassionate, knowledgeable, and committed to quality health care for all. The Appalachian outreach and international outreach programs, in w... | 11 |
| Location, Community and University Affiliations | 13 |
| VCOM Virginia Campus Overview | 13 |
| VCOM Carolinas Campus Overview | 14 |
| VCOM Auburn Campus Overview | 15 |
| VCOM Louisiana Campus Overview | 16 |
| VCOM Libraries | 17 |
| Overview of the Educational Program and the Role of Faculty | 28 |
| Notice of Nondiscrimination | 31 |
| American with Disabilities Act | 31 |
| Position Classification | 32 |
| Full-Time Regular Employees | 32 |
| Part-Time or Wage-Employees | 32 |
| Administrative Supervisory Staff | 32 |
| Exempt or Non-exempt Employee Status | 33 |
| The exempt or non-exempt employee status and the duties of the employee’s position will be defined in the employees’ position description. Whether the position is to be determined as exempt or non-exempt is determined by the President and the Divisio... | 33 |
| a. Be paid on a salary basis not subject to reduction based on quality or quantity of work (the salary basis test) | 33 |
| b. Be paid at least $684 per workweek or $35,568 annually as a full-time worker to be considered an exempt employee (the salary level test). This is the 2016 threshold, and this may change from time to time. Employees who earn a salary of less than ... | 33 |
| c. Have a primary job duty that classifies the employee as exempt, which involves the kind of administrative work associated with an exempt executive or professional (the standard duties test). Additionally, it requires that the employee exercise inde... | 33 |
| Position Description | 33 |
| Workplace Site Expectations, Requirements, and Working Remotely | 33 |
| Hours of Work, Breaks, and Overtime | 35 |
| Hours of Work | 35 |
| Meal Breaks | 35 |
| Evening Hours and Weekends | 35 |
| VCOM full time employees also work during evenings and on weekends. | 35 |
| When scheduling employees that work weeknights and weekends, the Division Officer should schedule the employee in a manner that assures they do not exceed 40 hours. | 35 |
| Certain employees such as the library assistant and the front desk guard may not leave their area to eat; therefore, they are considered as “working” when they are eating, and the time is considered in the work hours. In this case, the Division Offic... | 35 |
| In times of emergency or to meet the needs of students and VCOM, additional work may be assigned that must be completed on the weekend. In those instances, employees may be asked to work on a weekend. When college events occur on Friday or the weeke... | 35 |
| Work Attendance – Reporting (Absences or Late Arrivals) | 36 |
| Overtime | 36 |
| Approved Overtime Timesheet | 36 |
| Compensation Time for Overtime | 37 |
| When compensation is considered for a non-exempt employee, the time must be given during the same workweek to avoid overtime. “Comp Time” is not allowed for non-exempt employees extending beyond the workweek. A Division Officer may provide a day off... | 37 |
| Calculating Overtime Pay | 37 |
| Noncompliance of Overtime Rules and Consequences | 37 |
| VCOM Compensation and Equity in Salary | 37 |
| Salary Anti-Discrimination Policy | 38 |
| Posting of Salary and Pay Bands | 38 |
| Determining Initial Salary | 38 |
| New Hire Performance Evaluation | 38 |
| Employee Change of Status | 39 |
| Due Process for Employees Seeking to Improve Their Status Prior to Termination | 40 |
| Annual Employee Performance Evaluation | 41 |
| Annual Salary Review and Merit Increase Determination | 42 |
| Pay Equity Audit | 43 |
| Pay Equity Grievance Process | 44 |
| Expectations for Professional and Ethical Behavior | 46 |
| VCOM Statement on Professional Ethics for Administrative and Classified Staff | 46 |
| Personal Appearance and Professional Dress | 48 |
| Staff Professional and Ethical Policies and Procedures | 50 |
| Confidentiality | 50 |
| Conflict of Interest | 50 |
| Copyright Policy | 50 |
| It is the policy of the College to respect the copyright protections provided by federal and state laws, including protections for digital materials and software. It is against College policy for faculty, staff or students to use College equipment or... | 50 |
| Copyright is a legal right, grounded in the United States Constitution, that gives the owner of said copyright the exclusive rights to: | 51 |
| Reproduce (make copies of) the work; and | 51 |
| Modify or prepare derivative works based on the work (Examples of derivative works include translations, transforming printed works into musicals or films, rearrangements of scores, and any other recast, transformation or adaptation of a work); and | 51 |
| Distribute the work in any format by sale, publication, license, rental, or for free; and | 51 |
| Publicly perform or display the work; and | 51 |
| Authorize others to exercise some or all those rights | 51 |
| Intellectual Property of Instructional Materials | 51 |
| Instructional materials created as a part of an employee’s position at VCOM is the intellectual property of VCOM. To carry out its mission, VCOM retains a non-exclusive, no-cost license to use, reuse, reproduce, display, distribute, and make derivati... | 51 |
| Fair Use Doctrine | 51 |
| Duplicating Copyrighted Materials for Instructional Use | 52 |
| No Electronic Theft Act | 54 |
| Congress enacted the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act in 1997 to facilitate prosecution of copyright violation on the internet. The NET Act makes it a federal crime to reproduce, distribute, or share copies of electronic copyrighted works such as songs,... | 54 |
| The NET Act is applicable in situations such as running a file sharing application with outgoing transfers enabled, hosting files on a web account, transferring files through IRC, and other methods of making copyrighted material available over networks. | 54 |
| Educational Conflicts of Interest and Recusal | 55 |
| If a faculty member, fellow, resident, or other allied health professional is assigned to a role in which they will assess a student with whom they have previously provided health care services including psychological counseling, the faculty member, f... | 55 |
| In event that a faculty member, fellow, resident, or other allied health professional has not already recused themselves from assessment duties and a student is assigned to an educational environment in which the faculty member, fellow, or resident as... | 55 |
| A member of the Promotion Board, Professional and Ethical Standards Board, or Honor Code Council must recuse themselves from the presentation, deliberation, and vote about a student with whom they have a conflict of interest by notifying the committee... | 55 |
| An admissions interviewer must recuse themselves from any participation in the admissions process (including attending committee meetings, screening applications, interviewing) for any applicant with whom they have any conflict of interest. The confl... | 56 |
| A member of the Admissions Committee must recuse themselves from the presentation, deliberation, and vote about an applicant with whom they have any conflict of interest, as defined by the list above, by notifying the committee chair. | 56 |
| VCOM’s Mental Health Counselors may not assess students or make decisions about a student’s advancement, graduation, or dismissal. | 56 |
| Email and Voice Mail | 56 |
| Employee Obligations for the Highest Standards of Conduct | 56 |
| Employment of Relatives | 57 |
| Gifts, Gratuities or Rewards | 57 |
| Internet Usage | 57 |
| Library, Printing and Multi-Media Services | 58 |
| Medical Treatment of VCOM Students and Employees by VCOM Physician Faculty or Other VCOM Students | 58 |
| Off-Campus Consultation or Academic Work | 59 |
| Outside Employment | 60 |
| Privacy of Employee Records | 60 |
| When an employee leaves the institution, only the employee’s personnel file will be maintained and for a period of seven years. No release of information, including those for references, will be made without written consent of the employee, unless ot... | 61 |
| Relationship to Students | 61 |
| Relationship to the College Community | 62 |
| Social Media Policy | 62 |
| Cyberbullying | 65 |
| Official College Social Media Sites | 65 |
| Timely and Regular Attendance | 67 |
| Dependable Application of Time | 67 |
| Travel | 67 |
| Violence in the Workplace Policy | 67 |
| VCOM has a policy of zero tolerance for violence in the workplace. Employees who engage in any violence in the workplace or threaten violence in the workplace will be subject to discipline, including immediate termination. Violence includes, but is ... | 67 |
| Acts of Discrimination, Harassment and Violence | 67 |
| Violation of the Discrimination, Harassment, and Violence Policy | 68 |
| Discrimination | 68 |
| VCOM is committed to providing an academic and employment environment in which all people are treated with courtesy, respect, and dignity. It is the policy of VCOM that no person shall, including on the basis of sex, be discriminated in, or be denied... | 68 |
| VCOM’s commitment to the principles of nondiscrimination includes and extends far beyond the federally protected classes and includes, but is not limited to, age, gender, sex, race, color, creed, national origin, religion, ancestry, marital status, pr... | 68 |
| Sexual Discrimination | 68 |
| Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (amending the Higher Education Act of 1965) prohibits discrimination based on sex, including in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. ... | 68 |
| Violence | 70 |
| Reporting Acts of Discrimination, Harassment, or Violence | 70 |
| Grievance Procedure for Claims of Discrimination, Harassment, or Violence | 70 |
| Complaints Regarding Non-Compliance with American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Accreditation Standards | 70 |
| Grievance Procedure | 72 |
| Formal Grievance Resolution | 72 |
| If the involved employees are dissatisfied with the resolution or a resolution cannot be reached through the informal grievance process, the employee(s) may file a formal grievance with the Director for Human Resources. The formal grievance must be s... | 72 |
| Campus Facilities Policies and Procedures | 73 |
| Safety Mission | 73 |
| Alcohol and Drug Free Workplace | 73 |
| Alcohol and Drug Testing | 74 |
| Building and Grounds Etiquette | 74 |
| Workplace Cleanliness | 75 |
| Food and Drink in the Workplace | 76 |
| During the year there are special events where employees may bring food from home or that VCOM has catered (i.e., potluck lunches). The sponsoring department must ensure that all food and drinks are discarded at the end of the event. Other employees... | 76 |
| Campus Safety and Access | 76 |
| Fire Safety | 77 |
| Clery Crime Statistics Report and Clery Annual Safety Report | 77 |
| Firearms and Weapons | 78 |
| Inclement Weather and Emergency Notifications | 78 |
| Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens | 78 |
| Parking Regulations | 79 |
| Pets | 79 |
| Salary Information | 81 |
| Paydays | 81 |
| Direct Deposit | 81 |
| Time Sheets | 81 |
| Payroll Deductions | 81 |
| Office Closings: Inclement Weather/Emergencies | 81 |
| Leave | 82 |
| Leave Reports | 82 |
| Annual Leave | 82 |
| Holidays | 83 |
| Certain holidays falling on the weekend will be observed either on the Friday before the holiday or the Monday after the holiday they do not include the floating holidays. | 84 |
| If an employee is on military or educational leave without pay during a holiday, the employee will not receive an alternate day off. | 84 |
| VCOM will make reasonable accommodation for change in holiday dates for the religious needs of employees if such accommodation will not cause disruption of the educational program or cause the organization undue hardship. Leave for this purpose will ... | 84 |
| Use of Annual Leave for Staff | 84 |
| Unearned Leave | 84 |
| Unanticipated Leave | 85 |
| Administrative Leave | 85 |
| Educational Leave | 85 |
| Leave Without Pay | 85 |
| Medical Leave or “Sick Leave” | 86 |
| Employee Emergent Sick Leave Sharing Program or “Sick Leave Bank” | 87 |
| Short-Term Disability and Family and Medical Leave Benefits | 88 |
| Military Leave | 90 |
| Health Insurance | 91 |
| Dental Insurance | 91 |
| Mental Health and Wellness | 92 |
| Employees have access to mental health and wellness services through VCOM. They can access these services through the following providers: | 92 |
| the physician network within their Anthem health coverage; | 92 |
| the Anthem – EAP (Employee Assistance Program); | 92 |
| Rula, in partnership with Anthem (www.Rula.com/vcom); and/or | 92 |
| VCOM’s Teladoc benefit for all full-time employees with or without health insurance coverage (VCOM full-time employees receive a discounted rate for therapy and psychiatry visits). | 92 |
| Retirement | 92 |
| Cafeteria Plan Services | 93 |
| Group Life and Disability Insurance | 94 |
| All eligible employees are enrolled in the school’s Short-Term Disability as well as Long-Term Disability coverage. These benefits are provided at no cost to the employee. For more details, contact the VCOM Human Resources Director. The life insura... | 94 |
| Employee Educational Aid Program | 94 |
| CPE/CME and Professional Dues | 95 |
| Workers’ Compensation | 96 |
| Unemployment Insurance | 96 |
| Benefits Upon Termination | 96 |