Data stewards are appointed by data trustees. All data stewards are voting members of the Data Stewardship Committee.
Membership is generally based on position rather than person. If a current data steward changes position, the data trustee will be consulted to determine if the same data steward should continue in their new position or if that person should resign and a new steward appointed by the trustee.
Once a new Data Steward is appointed, the appointee will be invited to an onboarding meeting where the Chair and the Enterprise Data Management Support Services Manager will review the committee’s charge along with various committee documents and web sites. This will be done prior to the appointee’s first DSC meeting.
The Committee Chair and Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect are data stewards and are voting members of the committee.
The Committee Chair is a member of the Data Governance Steering Committee (DGCS) during their term as chair.
Ex-officio Members
Data Governance Steering Committee members are all ex-officio members of the Data Stewardship Committee.
Ex-officio members advise the Data Stewardship Committee on numerous topics.
Ex-officio members do not have voting rights on the DSC unless they are also data stewards.
Quorum & Voting
A majority of the data stewardship voting membership is required for a quorum.
Depending on the urgency of the matter and the availability of members for a meeting, the Committee Chair can elect to hold the vote outside of a committee meeting through other means (i.e., email).
In the event of a tie vote in which less than 100% of voting members participated, the Committee Chair shall conduct a second vote on the matter either at the next committee meeting or outside of a committee meeting through other means. If the vote is still a tie, the motion or other matter which is being voted is defeated.
Data Stewardship Committee Officers
The Committee Chair serves a two-year term that coincides with the fiscal year.
The Committee Chair can serve multiple non-consecutive terms.
The Committee Chair has the power to create and appoint working groups.
The Chair-Elect serves a two-year term that coincides with the fiscal year.
Upon the Committee Chair fulfilling their term, the Chair-Elect becomes the Committee Chair.
In the absence of the Chair, the Chair-Elect will lead Data Stewardship Committee meetings.
If the Chair is unable to attend a meeting of the Data Governance Steering Committee, the Chair-Elect may attend in their place.
The Chair-Elect chairs the Data Governance Awareness & Education Sub-Committee and may designate a co-chair.
If a vacancy in the Committee Chair’s seat should occur through termination of employment, change of position, resignation from the Data Stewardship Committee, or expulsion from the Data Stewardship Committee, or if the Chair departs the Committee for any other reason, the Committee Chair’s position shall be filled by the Committee Chair-Elect who will complete the vacating Chair’s term before beginning their term. A special election will be held to elect a new Chair-Elect.
Nominations and Elections Procedures
For regular elections in even years, the Committee Chair will appoint a nominating working group by May 1. The nominating working group will include the Committee Chair, Chair-Elect, and up to three additional members, one or more of whom may be ex officio committee members.
The working group solicits candidates from among the voting members of the committee (i.e., Data Stewards) and may ask the Data Governance Steering Committee for recommendations. Working group members may self-nominate.
The working group shall complete the candidate selection process by June 1. Only one candidate needs to accept the nomination. The Data Stewardship Committee elects (multiple nominees) or confirms (single nominee) the Vice-Chair/ Chair-Elect by July 1. A majority vote is required. The specified timeline can be modified as needed if a special election is required.
Data Domains
Identification of new data domains and data stewards: Whenever a committee member recognizes the possible need for a new data domain, that person should inform the Committee Chair who will add the item to an upcoming DSC meeting agenda. If the DSC determines that a new data domain is needed, the Committee Chair will inform the Data Governance Steering Committee. Once approved by the DGSC, the DSC Chair will contact the appropriate data trustee and request that they appoint a data steward. The data steward will work with the committee to determine the information systems to include in the domain and identify data custodians as appropriate. Additionally, once the new data domain has been established, any necessary communications of the change shall be made.
Removal of an existing data domain: At some point, the need to remove an existing Data Domain may arise. When this occurs, the Data Steward of the Data Domain should present justification along with Data Trustee confirmation to the Data Governance Steering Committee Chair. The DGSC Chair can then discuss the potential removal with the greater DGSC. Assuming the removal is confirmed, it should be brought to the attention of the Data Stewardship Committee Chair who will add the item to an upcoming DSC meeting agenda and the DSC can then decide which of the remaining Data Domain(s) will absorb some or all the data from the Data Domain being removed. When this is complete, any necessary communication of the change shall be made.
Data Standards Approval Procedures
Data systems may impact multiple areas and data domains. Changes to data systems that impact multiple data domains are managed by either a change management team or the system’s administrator. Data standards are defined as documented standards on how an application and its users manage the information system’s data. The information system’s change management team will approve or reject data standards requests based on their approval procedures. If a formal change management team does not exist for the given system, then the system’s administrator will be responsible for the information system’s change management.
Data standard changes that involve a data element that is considered university master data (ex., a person’s name) should be submitted to the Data Stewardship Committee via the DSC representative for the system. Changes that only include information systems that already have recognized regulatory management (i.e., FERPA officer, HIPAA officer) do not have to be submitted.
For changes that have been approved by a change management team or systems administrator, the information system’s Data Stewardship Committee representative should bring the change to the DSC for review after which one or all of the following could occur:
The Data Stewards may:
Ask questions in the meeting.
Provide feedback to the representative.
Ask the representative to take questions back to the person/group responsible for approving the change before it is committed.
Request that the change be put on hold. The DSC will send the Data Stewardship Committee representative back to gather additional information and/or to discuss any issues the DSC has identified. An update should then be brought back to the DSC.
For changes that the Change Management Team or Systems Administrator cannot agree to approve or reject, the information system’s Data Stewardship Committee representative can bring the proposed data standard change to the DSC for a recommendation. The recommendation is then sent back to the system’s change management team or systems administrator.
For changes that have been fully reviewed and approved, the information system’s Data Stewardship Committee representative enters the data standard change into the University’s Business Glossary which currently resides in the Microsoft Purview system. If needed, training on the University’s Business Glossary is available by contacting the Enterprise Data Management Support Services team through TeamDynamix. Once there, select Data Governance under the Request Type dropdown.