The 5-Step Approval Workflow
Per university policy and General Counsel directives, the Office of General Counsel is the final checkpoint before institutional execution. Every agreement must advance sequentially through the following stages:
Step 1
The sponsoring faculty member or program coordinator collaborates with their Department Chair to evaluate the agreement's academic merit, resource allocation, and departmental alignment. Together, they obtain an editable draft agreement (.docx), assemble partner details, and confirm the academic purpose before engaging Legal.
Step 2
The Department Chair sends the editable draft agreement directly to General Counsel for legal review. OGC reviews legal provisions (e.g., choice of law, sovereign immunity, cancellation clauses, Open Records compliance) and provides necessary redlines or approved addenda. The Chair coordinates with the partner if any language must be negotiated.
Step 3
Once the agreement has received clearance from General Counsel and all revisions are accepted, the Department Chair submits the final, signature-ready contract in PDF form into the CEBS Intake Portal.
Step 4
Dean Murphy reviews the finalized, legal-cleared agreement for strategic college alignment and institutional commitment, then formally executes the agreement on behalf of CEBS via digital signature.
Step 5
The executed document is returned to the partner for counter-signature (if needed), an official copy is transmitted back to the Department Chair and faculty initiator, and the final executed agreement is permanently archived in the CEBS contract repository.
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