Committee operating procedures may not contradict the current Institutional policies or procedures.
- Name: International Travel Safety and Oversight Committee (ITSOC)
- Purpose: The UA Policy for International Travel Safety and Compliance charges ITSOC with the institutional support of informed, prepared, and resilient official travel and programming.
ITSOC is tasked by the Provost with the development and assessment of policy, procedures, and emergency planning concerning UA official travel abroad. ITSOC reports to the Provost and its members are appointed by the Provost. ITSOC will consult with CERT as appropriate.
ITSOC is responsible for:
· Oversight of:
- An international travel registry to collect traveler and itinerary information
- Risk assessment and traveler preparation for international travel
- International emergency preparedness
- Emergency support of travelers
· Making recommendations to the Provost regarding:
- International travel policies and procedures
- Elevated risk travel
In the event of emergency/crisis conditions abroad due to natural disaster, political unrest, other acute events or hazardous conditions, with potentially severe or critical impact to travel or programming, UA International Emergency Support (IES) will coordinate an immediate institutional response. IES will form an Emergency Response Team (ERT) or Crisis Response Team (CRT) with select ITSOC members based on expertise to provide guidance and operational support. The need to form a Crisis Response Team is determined by IES in consultation with an ITSOC Chair.
ITSOC maintains responsibility for the review and assessment of responses. If necessary, ITSOC will provide to the Provost recommendations regarding potential restrictions concerning official UA travel.
- Membership:
ITSOC will be comprised of standing committee members, advisory and liaison members, and subject matter experts. Standing committee members are selected to represent specific university functions and areas of responsibility and provide representative votes. Alternate representatives for Standing Committee members will be identified for participation as needed. Advisory members provide the Committee with guidance and counsel and do not have voting privileges. The liaison to the Provost is designated as an advisory member and provides the Provost with ITSOC recommendations. Subject matter experts provide specialized knowledge and experience about various global regions and topics and serve as consultants to ITSOC on an as-needed basis.
Co-Chairs:
- These positions will be held by Standing Members, designated by a majority vote.
Vice Chair, Ex Officio:
- Head of Global Resiliency
Standing Member Areas of Representation:
- UA Study Abroad, UA Global, (Director)
- UA Study Abroad, UA Global, (Assistant Director, Student Health & Safety)
- Export Control Program (UECP), Office of Research, Discovery, and Innovation (Director)
- Faculty representative
- Risk Management Services (RMS),(Chief Risk Officer)
- Dean of Students Office (DOS), (Associate Dean)
- University of Arizona Police Department (UAPD)
- Campus Health and Wellness Services (CH&W, includes Counseling & Psych Services)
- Human Resources (HR)
- Financial Services Office (Comptroller)
Advisory to the Committee:
- Legal Liaison, Office of the General Counsel
- Liaison to the Provost
Subject Matter Experts: The list will vary according to available campus experts. Representation will include (but is not limited to) those with expertise concerning: natural disasters; high-risk regions and locations; international security; civil and political unrest; and public health.
- Selection of Members
- ITSOC Standing or Advisory members and their alternate representatives must be UA faculty or staff with relevant experience that is in alignment with the overall purpose of ITSOC.
- Potential Standing or Advisory members may be nominated to be part of the standing committees, working groups, or as an advisory member of ITSOC. Nominations may be received from any ITSOC members or the respective units represented in ITSOC and must be approved by the Provost.
- Subject Matter Experts are nominated and reviewed by ITSOC members and are then recommended to and approved by the Provost. Selection is based on area of expertise and need and further based on the nature of the activities reviewed by ITSOC.
- The Co-Chair positions will rotate.
- Standing committee members will rotate as needed based on nominations from the respective units.
- The Advisory members to the committee will rotate, as needed based on nominations from respective units.
- The Subject Matter Experts will rotate, as needed based on availability of the expert and nominations by ITSOC.
- Member Duties and Responsibilities:
- The Co-Chairs shall agree to the division of duties:
- Call three meetings annually and arrange logistics for meeting.
- Call for agenda items and create the agenda for such meetings.
- Distribute agenda electronically to all committee members no less than 7 calendar days prior to each scheduled meeting.
- Preside over meetings.
- Provide reports, as needed.
- Verify, with the assistance of the committee, that the committee’s web postings/information are accurate and up-to-date.
- Communicate upcoming openings on the committee to applicable areas/units.
- Oversee the nomination of committee members.
- Report membership list and officers for the upcoming year by May 1.
- Represent ITSOC on UACERT.
- Serve as alternate to facilitate communication between ITSOC and IES.
- The Vice Chair, Ex-Officio shall:
- Provide an annual report regarding UA international activities with assessment of patterns and potential vulnerabilities, threats, and risks.
- Report on and facilitate review of incidents, with close review of emergency and crisis response.
- Assess and facilitate emergency preparedness and coordinate the Crisis Response Team (CRT).
- Make recommendations to ITSOC regarding policies, protocols, elevated- risk reviews, and emergency planning.
- Not vote on policies, policies, reviews or other items put forward for recommendations.
- Recorder:
- The Co-Chairs will identify a recorder in advance of the tri-annual meetings.
- The recorder shall take accurate minutes (including attendance records) of each committee meeting.
- The recorder shall provide Co-Chairs with a draft of the minutes from the meeting within ten days after each meeting has taken place. The Co-Chairs will share the minutes with the committee members. Once approved, the minutes will be posted to the ITSOC shared drive by the Co-Chairs.
- The Standing Committee members:
- May nominate UA staff or faculty to be members of the standing committee, advisory members, or subject matter experts.
- Review nominations to the standing committee, advisory membership, and subject matter experts and make recommendations for the Provost’s consideration.
- Review official UA travel abroad deemed elevated risk and determine recommendations for travel.
- Assess and develop policy and approve procedures and emergency planning protocols related to official UA activities abroad.
- May be selected based on expertise or representative position to serve on a Crisis Response Team (CRT) to provide guidance and emergency support in crisis situations involving UA students or employees that require an institutional response.
- Will be debriefed to review and assess (incident responses after the fact in order to make recommendations to improve general and specific incident response protocols going forward.
- The Advisory members:
- Are on the Committee by virtue of their position or job title; they are non-voting members.
- Are encouraged to participate but are not under the authority of the Committee and when requested have the right, but not the obligation, to participate in the review of recommendations.
- Provide expertise and guidance to standing committee members to ensure appropriate institutional policies and protocols are followed.
- The Co-Chairs shall agree to the division of duties:
4. The Liaison to the Provost:
- Forwards nominations concerning ITSOC membership to the Provost for consideration and appointment.
- Forwards recommendations relating to elevated risk travel to the Provost for consideration and final decision.
- facilitates effective communication regarding elevated risk travel circumstances between ITSOC and the Provost, as well as with executive leadership, deans, directors and department heads when appropriate and circumstances dictate.
5. Legal Liaison:
- Provides general legal advice to ITSOC regarding policy, procedures, organization, and emergency planning.
- Consults on specific situations and scenarios when called upon by ITSOC or its members.
- The Subject Matter Experts:
- Provide guidance to ITSOC members related to their area of expertise as needed.
- Represent campus perspectives when determining potential changes to policies, procedures, and organization.
- The Subject Matter Experts:
- Meetings:
- ITSOC will meet three times per year (fall, spring, summer)
- ITSOC members will be invited to attend the meetings at least a month in advance via email and calendar requests.
- Additional meetings may be called to review travel requests when electronic processing is not conducive to the discussion.
- Working Groups:
- ITSOC has three working groups:
- Emergency Planning
- Policy, Procedures, and ITSOC Organization
- Student Travel
- The working groups will each have a chair with applicable expertise that will set the respective meeting schedules and provide reports on the accomplishments/progress of their working group at the ITSOC meetings.
- ITSOC has the right to form ad hoc working groups if it deems it necessary.
- ITSOC will determine the membership and purpose of the standing working groups it establishes. Alternate members or outside representatives may be included in working groups.
- ITSOC may vote to discontinue or disband a working group if it deems it is no longer needed.
- ITSOC has three working groups:
- Attendance:
- Members are expected to attend at least two of the tri-annual ITSOC meetings and the majority of assigned working group meetings.
- The Chair must be notified of confirmation of attendance at least one week prior to the scheduled meetings.
- Members will participate in Travel Review, as described in Procedures for Review of International Activities.
- Voting:
- Standing members, or their alternates, and the Co-Chairs are considered voting members.
- Advisory members, the Vice Chair, and Subject Matter Experts are non-voting members.
- When Export Control licensing/exception is required, Export Control Program has the authority to override approvals.
- Voting on elevated risk travel requests will occur electronically and must make every effort possible to include recommendations regarding travel approval as established:
|
Destination Risk* |
Employee Travel (Individual/ Group) |
UG Student Travel (Ind/Group) |
G Student Travel (Ind/Group) |
Field Trips/ Faculty Tours |
Study Abroad Programming |
|
Low Risk |
No vote necessary (NVN) |
NVN, unless elevated risk due to other travel factors, then: 3 min. rec towards authorization:
CHS or UAPD |
NVN, unless elevated risk due to other travel factors, then: 3 min. rec towards authorization:
CHS or UAPD |
G Student/Tour-NVN, unless elevated risk due to other factors. UG Students: 3 min. rec towards authorization:
CHS or UAPD UECP, if required |
NVN, unless elevated risk due to other factors: 3 min. rec towards authorization:
UAPD
UECP, if required |
|
Moderate Risk |
NVN |
5 min. towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
NVN, unless elevated risk due to other travel factors, then: 4 min. rec towards authorization:
CHS or UAPD |
4 min. rec towards authorization:
UAPD UECP, when required |
4 min. rec towards authorization:
UECP, if required |
|
High Risk |
3 min. rec towards mitigation |
6 min. towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
5 min. towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
5 min. rec towards authorization:
UAPD UECP, when required |
5 min. rec towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
|
Extreme Risk |
5 min. towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
|
5 min. towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
6 min. towards authorization:
UECP, when required |
|
- UA Study Abroad Standing Members will not participate in the review or vote on the evaluation of study abroad programming designated and managed by UA Study Abroad. In these instances, they will serve as petitioners along with the sponsoring department and college.
- Travel related requests must include the necessary recommendations from key members as indicated above.
- Standing members will indicate if there are any potential conflicts of interest in making recommendations. If necessary, alternate members will recommend in place of that member.
- Voting on policy or procedural changes will occur either in person in a tri-annual meeting or electronically. The Co-Chairs will oversee tally results of these votes.
- A simple majority (at least 50% of voting members) is needed in order to move a recommendation forward for consideration of the Provost regarding the amendment of any policy or procedures.
- Voting summaries regarding elevated risk travel will be documented in detail with records maintained as required by the records retention schedule.
- Voting in person during meetings will require a yea, nay, or abstention from Standing Members or their alternative representatives. These results will be tallied and documented by the person overseeing the meeting, typically the Co-Chairs.
- If a Standing Member is unavailable, his/her designated alternate representative may vote on behalf of the Standing Member.
Procedures for ITSOC Review of International Activities: All official travel is registered in the appropriate UA system. All official UA Travel is reviewed for federal Export Control compliance. Travel that is considered minimal or low risk does not require further assessment and review. Any official UA Travel that is determined to fall within an elevated risk either due to the destination(s), travel type, or activities receives further assessment and may require Provost authorization. Travel to a destination considered high or extreme risk must be considered essential (high risk) or critical (extreme risk).
The following criteria will be considered grounds for assessment and potential determination of elevated risk due to participants, activities, or destination(s):
- Security advisories that include “exercise high degree of caution”, “avoid non-essential travel”, or “avoid all travel”, or similar language
- Travel Alert (Level 2) or Travel Warning (Level 3) issued by the CDC
- UA employee travel with students or community members on Field Trips, Study Abroad programming, or Faculty-Led Tours.
Travel that is considered elevated risk will be processed in the following manners:
|
Travel Type |
Low Risk (Destinations) |
Moderate Risk (Destinations) |
High Risk (Destinations) |
Extreme Risk (Destinations) |
|
Undergraduate Students (including individually arranged travel plans and group travel) |
Follow processing for elevated risk destinations if elevated trip risk levels overall. |
|
|
ONLY permitted for nontraditional students/ travelers from destination |
|
Graduate Students (including individually arranged travel plans and group travel) |
Trip Risk Assessment, if identified elevated risk factor.
Follow processing for elevated risk destinations if elevated trip risk levels overall. |
|
|
|
|
Employees |
|
No elevated-risk requirements |
|
|
|
|
Minimal & Low Risk Destination(s) |
Moderate/High Risk Destination(s) |
Extreme Risk Destination(s) |
|
Study Abroad Programs: Direct Credit |
|
|
|
|
Field Trips |
|
High Risk Destinations ONLY permitted for graduate students, nontraditional students, or students from the destination when students are adequately trained and purpose for travel is essential. |
ONLY permitted for graduate students, nontraditional students, or students from the destination when students are adequately trained and purpose for travel is critical. |
|
Faculty-Led Tours |
|
|
|
Trip Risk Assessment: an individualized review of travel details and risk assessment of the vulnerabilities, threats, risk mitigation, and recommendations for the trip. When requiring additional review the report is shared with the traveler(s) and supervisor(s) and when required provided to ITSOC standing members for review and the Provost’s Office for final determination.
Field Trips: Due to the limited direct oversight of field trip planning and preparation, all field trips with undergraduate students require ITSOC review. Unless the trip assessment for field trips with graduate students is determined to be elevated risk when traveling to low/minimal risk location, only destinations that are elevated risk require ITSOC review. All field trip participants must register. Global Resiliency will work with UA employees to promote risk mitigation and emergency preparedness.
Lead Traveler will provide details for risk assessment including:
- Student type(s) (undergraduate or graduate)
- Travel dates (departure & return)
- Detailed itineraries of all official activities, locations, and dates
- Expectations of participants, including potential travel restrictions
- Identified vulnerabilities and steps taken to mitigate risks
- Identified in-country support for program participants, if available
ITSOC will receive details of elevated-risk trips including:
- Detailed itineraries of all official field trip activities, locations, and dates
- Identified vulnerabilities and steps taken to mitigate risks
- Identified in-country support for participants
Study Abroad Programs: Due to the direct oversight and support from UA Study Abroad, not all Study Abroad Programs require annual ITSOC review. UA Study Abroad will review all programs to identify any changes and/or elevated activities and destinations prior to participant recruitment and again prior to departure. Global Resiliency will contribute to the assessment initiated by UA Study Abroad and facilitate ITSOC review, according to charted criteria. UA Study Abroad will work with UA employees to promote risk mitigation and emergency preparedness.
UA Study Abroad collects and as appropriate provides accurate program details from program leads including:
- Official dates programs/exchanges begin and end
- Detailed itineraries of all official program activities, locations, and dates, including excursions
- Expectations of participants, including potential travel restrictions
- Identified vulnerabilities and steps taken to mitigate risks
- Identified in-country support for program participants
- Potential dates of employee absence(s) from program
- Description of patterns of incidents or previous emergency support necessary for program/exchange
ITSOC will review UA Study Abroad programs identified for that year and any that meet the following conditions:
- Existing programs that experienced during the previous year an emerging pattern of incident reports, particularly if response support was required or emergency support.
- High-risk activities, including (but not limited to) scuba diving, snorkeling, rappelling, zip lining, etc.
- Requested by UA Study Abroad Programs with conditional status
- Significant changes to the itinerary, security rating, or other factors indicating potentially increased risk or different threats.
Faculty-Led Tours: Due to the limited direct oversight of tour planning and preparation, all tours require ITSOC review, unless established through UA Alumni.
Lead Traveler will provide details including:
- Travel dates (departure & return)
- Detailed itineraries of all official activities, locations, and dates
- Expectations of participants, including potential travel restrictions
- Identified vulnerabilities and steps taken to mitigate risks
- Identified in-country support for program participants, if available
ITSOC will receive details including:
- Detailed itineraries of all official field trip activities, locations, and dates
- Identified vulnerabilities and steps taken to mitigate risks
- Identified in-country support for participants
Risk Assessment: Off-campus entities may be consulted for guidance and recommendations due to concerns with high or extreme risk levels. This includes potential benchmarking through Pulse International and/or consultation with Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) and analysts or members of regional councils, Regional Security Officers (RSOs), or other individuals with security expertise. ITSOC Subject Matter Experts may also be consulted, as appropriate.
ITSOC Review: Standing members will receive the Risk Assessment and supporting documentation for consideration of essential activities, security precautions and recommendations. Routine reviews will be sent electronically with a process for indicating member recommendations. Members may indicate recommendations to:
- Enhance risk mitigation for travel plans not requiring Provost authorization
- Approve or authorize travel plans as provided by the traveler, without modification
- Approve or authorize travel plans with additional conditions or recommendations (as provided on the Trip Report)
- Approve or authorize travel plans with additional conditions or recommendations (as provided by Standing Members)
- Provide “blanket” approval or authorization for multiple trips, reviewed again after a certain time frame or if conditions change
- Not approve or authorize travel plans at this time
In some cases of extreme risk travel, ITSOC may request to convene for further deliberation and consideration.
ITSOC recommendations will be archived as indicated in the Voting section of this document.
Department Head/ /Dean Determination: The risk assessment is provided to the appropriate parties to advise of the risk levels and recommendations to mitigate risks. Approval of the travel indicates:
- Travel is considered essential (high risk) or critical (extreme risk)
- Department support of the travel given the potential risks to the traveler(s)
Travel that is not approved will not forward to the Provost’s Office for further determination.
Provost Determination: All documentation and ITSOC recommendations are shared with the Provost’s Office for final determination when required. Travelers will receive an emailed letter of determination that includes the travelers’ supervisor, Dean, and ITSOC Chair, Vice Chair, FSO, and Export Control, as appropriate.
Travelers have an opportunity to respond to questions that emerge during the assessment and review process. If insufficient information is provided with limited time for review, the risk assessment, ITSOC review, and Provost will provide recommendations and a final decision based on the information available.
Determinations of Unauthorized: If the department does not approve travel, travel plans must be canceled. Travel that occurs will be considered noncompliant and is not eligible for:
- AZ State health and/or liability insurance
- Financial reimbursement
- Course credit or meeting study requirements
- Amendments:
- These Operating Procedures may be amended by a vote of the majority of the Standing Members.