Managing Information Safely & Securely

Data governance & Policy

Why is Data Governance Needed?

The importance of data to organizations is growing exponentially. A data governance program helps ensure that data is complete, consistent and accurate—and reduces data security risks due to unauthorized access or misuse of data. As a public university, we are also responsible for using our data to make informed decision to best support our students and their academic journeys.

Data Governance at Large

Data and data governance play a key role in the future of universities and many other large organizations. By 2022, 90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset and analytics as an essential competency. By 2023, 65% of the world’s population will have its personal information covered under modern privacy regulations, up from 10% today.

Healthy data governance ensures that cloud services are appropriately assessed for managing the risks to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive institutional information and the personally identifiable information (PII) of constituents.

Data Governance at the University of Nebraska System

The University of Nebraska system is focused on making data-informed decisions—helping to effectively manage our resources.

Data governance helps us to work more strategically, intentionally and collaboratively across the University.
It also maximizes dollars and resources, especially critical when budgets are tight, and helps us do more with less.
Given regulations around PII, HIPPA and FERPA, the University needs to know where data is at—who is accessing it, where it's stored and where it's going.

Data Governance Policies

These system-wide policies help scaffold behavior, classify data, and give parameters around using data responsibly.

Executive Memorandum No. 42

This policy helps protect institutional data while preserving the open, information-sharing mission of the University system’s academic cultures. Institutional data is classified in accordance with legal, regulatory, administrative, and contractual requirements; intellectual property and ethical considerations; strategic or proprietary value; and/or operational use.

Read EM42

Institutional Data Use Policy (ID-01)

This policy outlines the stewardship responsibilities for data—including security and permissions—and provides definitions, procedures, forms and other direction for using University of Nebraska system data.

Read ID-01

Executive Memorandum No. 16

This executive memorandum provides guidance relating to responsible use of the University's electronic information systems, including proper authorization for use.

Read EM16

Data Stewards

Data Stewards manage business processes and rules over the related subject area. They provide first-level determinations for data access and work in collaboration with other campus data stewards to streamline process and service across the NU System.

Finance and Personnel

University of Nebraska–Lincoln:
Lacey Rohe

University of Nebraska Medical Center:
Susan Kraft-Mann

University of Nebraska at Omaha:
Anne Embree

University of Nebraska at Kearney:
Chelsea Swarm

Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture:
Jeff Bassford

Office of the President:
Karen Kersten

Student

University of Nebraska–Lincoln:
Steve Booton

University of Nebraska Medical Center:
Andrew Robertson

University of Nebraska at Omaha:
Andrew Jacobsen

University of Nebraska at Kearney:
Lisa Neal

Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture:
Jennifer McConville

Office of the President:
Vanessa Roof

Best Practices in Working with Data

Sharing & Sending Data

Organizations rely on email and other file sharing methods to transmit information between co-workers. But like everything else in the world, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. If you can, avoid emailing data.

Selecting Vendors

An essential question to ask before selecting a vendor: what happens to our data if we sever ties? You don't want your data to be held hostage should you move to a different provider. Find out in advance what the answer is.

Using & Storing Data

A key principle for data storage: keep it safe. This means working on and depositing your data in a protected environment and not in an unsecured environment like an unencrypted work laptop or an unencrypted USB—and never on a personal machine.

more best practices