This policy establishes the management of university data and the responsibilities for collecting, protecting, and sharing data. It creates the foundation for a data strategy, providing guidelines for oversight of University data assets, data domains, and data classifications and standards, and delineates roles and responsibilities for managing data integrity, access, and confidentiality. Grand Valley’s data strategy provides the university with a competitive edge to further its academic excellence, outreach efforts, and student success.

• University Data is managed as an institutional asset, and it is owned by the University.
• Data is made available only to authorized users and systems. 
• Data sharing across institutional boundaries should be facilitated where appropriate and must follow University policies and all state and federal laws.
• Data extraction, manipulation, and reporting must align with Grand Valley's data guidance principles and operating purposes.
• Verification with the Responsible Officer or Data Steward is required before using any information outside the Data Domain.
• Data organization and structure are determined at the University's functional and operating levels.
• Data must be safeguarded and managed at all points and across all systems, from creation to use, to archive, through coordinated efforts and shared responsibilities to ensure its accuracy. Each University division and its departments are responsible for implementing processes to identify and correct erroneous or inconsistent data and define data retention and archiving policies.   
• Data integration across Grand Valley should be encouraged to foster data accuracy, uniformity, and definitions for commonly consumed data, understanding that there may be multiple valid definitions.
• Data definitions, usage, sources, and classifications are managed through the data management and data stewardship principles of administering and controlling data quality and standards supporting Grand Valley’s University mission and strategy

Procedures for data stewardship, classifications and domains can be found on the IT Service Portal View Knowledge Base under the * Data & Analytics Category. These articles contain information on requesting data access, the type of data we collect, and security risks.

• University data: All information with the exception of instructional materials, and faculty, staff, and student research and scholarship work covered by the University Intellectual Property policy, that is created, collected, maintained, transformed, transmitted, or recorded by or for the University to conduct business operations. It includes information used for planning, managing, budgeting, and operating, covering data sources from transactional systems and information in paper, electronic, audio, and visual formats.
• Personal data: Information created, collected, maintained, transformed, transmitted, or recorded by or for the University that is private or confidential to the creator, which is not used to conduct Grand Valley's business.
• Business operations: Processes put in place to enable the University to conduct its daily business.
• Responsible Officers: University individuals responsible for managing Data Domains and ensuring the integrity, quality, and security of Grand Valley State University's data. Responsible Officers are typically in a leadership role and are appointed by and have an organizational reporting relationship with the Senior Leadership Team. Responsible Officers appoint Data Stewards and Subject Matter Experts.
• Data Stewards: University individuals responsible for managing and supporting the day-to-day business operations used to maintain University data. Data Stewards are typically considered subject matter experts on specific sets of data elements, and they understand how the data is used by data consumers (Campus Stakeholders). They hold some official compliance responsibilities (e.g., records retention, sensitive data inventory etc.).
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): University individuals who support the day-to-day business processes used to maintain and/or analyze University data.Perform many of the same duties as Data Stewards, but do not hold official compliance responsibilities.
• Data Domains: High-level grouping of interrelated University data pertaining to a common purpose. Each Data Domain is assigned one or more Responsible Officer and one or more Data Steward for data sharing and integrity.