Approval process in lieu of signature

To: RFA Faculty Members

Dear Colleagues,

Ryerson policies and some collective agreement provisions frequently require that letters, assessments or recommendations issued by Ryerson committees be signed by all committee members to confirm their views are reflected in the correspondence.

As a result of working remotely, during the pandemic, committee members serving on the many and various Ryerson committees do not have the opportunity to physically sign the documents that are generated by the committees on which they are serving.

To address this situation the following guidelines with respect to electronic signatures will be utilized for the above noted committee correspondence:

• All emails in lieu of a ‘signature’ for a committee document must be sent via an @ryerson.ca email address.
• Once a document has been finalized by a Committee (including, where appropriate, minority views which have been incorporated to the satisfaction of all members of the Committee), a copy of that document should be sent to all committee members for their ‘signed’ approval. The finalized document should be in PDF format. Please note that a ‘shared’ or linked document is not acceptable for signature purposes.
• Committee members are required to send back the original email, including the PDF document they are agreeing to, and within the body of the message of this email each sender should state that they agree with the content of the attachment and that this email serves as their signed approval.
  (Note: using the ‘Forward’ email functionality ensures all attachments are included).
• The approval emails should be sent to an agreed upon person, normally the Chair of the Committee, who will receive emails from each of the Committee members and compile a final approved document.
• The final approved version of the document will be compiled once such emails have been received from all the members of a committee. This final compiled version should be in PDF format and should include the date/times each individual committee member agreed (per email) to the document. This will be deemed to be a final ‘signed’ document.
• This final ‘signed’ document should be circulated to committee members, and then sent to the intended final recipient (e.g. a Dean).

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty Affairs at vpfa@torontomu.ca

Sincerely,

Dr. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano
Vice-Provost, Faculty Affairs

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Deans
Offices of the Deans
RFA
Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty Affairs
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