University-wide Compliance Coordination
- What is compliance?
- How is compliance coordinated at IU?
- Who is responsible for compliance at IU?
- Where can I report compliance problems?
- What if I need advice or help with compliance?
What is compliance?
Compliance means conforming to relevant laws, regulations, policies, standards, procedures, or contractual obligations. These may be external (local, state, federal, or third-party) or internal obligations. Compliance with external obligations and the organization’s own requirements are a critical component of effective risk management, enabling it to better prevent, detect, and respond to violations that are damaging to the organization’s viability.
How is compliance coordinated at IU?
The Compliance Coordination Team is responsible for taking steps to ensure that:
- the institution has identified the comprehensive compliance obligations pertaining to the institution, university-wide;
- offices with appropriate expertise have been assigned management responsibility for compliance for each obligation;
- those offices have assigned a person to be responsible for leading the compliance effort;
- assigned compliance personnel are aware of and accountable for ensuring compliance with these obligations;
- staff are aware of applicable compliance obligations in their respective areas.
The Compliance Coordinator may appropriately elevate compliance issues to ensure proper attention is being given to those issues.
Who is responsible for compliance at IU?
Compliance responsibility at IU follows a tiered model. When a regulation, law, or contractual obligation requires IU's compliance, an individual or office is assigned responsibility for oversight of that compliance sector university-wide or for a specific campus.
However, it is important to understand that every employee at IU is also individually responsible for ensuring that he or she is complying with university policies, regulations, laws, and contractual obligations.
The offices and personnel assigned direct compliance responsibilities are accountable for:
- tracking requirements;
- designing and implementing effective and efficient internal controls, policies, and procedures to assure compliance;
- providing awareness and training programs;
- monitoring and measuring transactions and processes to report the degree of compliance by the organization;
- responding to audits and investigations into regulatory and compliance issues; and
- handling requests for information from regulatory bodies.
In addition, the university-wide Internal Audit unit acts as an independent appraisal function to examine and evaluate university activities, including compliance activities, as a service to management and the Board of Trustees.
Where can I report compliance problems?
Incidents of non-compliance are to be reported immediately to the office with direct compliance responsibilities for that area. Directions for reporting various types of incidents or problems, including a way to report incidents or problems anonymously, are available on the Report an Incident page.
What if I need advice or help with compliance?
You may email compliance@iu.edu with any general questions about compliance at IU. The compliance coordination function is administratively housed in Public Safety and Institutional Assurance, and is managed by Merri Beth Lavagnino.
IU has specialists in specific areas of compliance, and we will connect you with a specialist, or a lawyer in the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel, if your issue requires such specialized expertise.
