Institutional Policies & Procedures

Inclement Weather/Emergency Closing Policy

• At times, emergencies such as severe weather, fire or power failures can temporarily disrupt operations.
• Providence will decide on class cancellation and closure based on the best available information.
• Providence will announce cancellations and closures on the Providence Home Page, on the Campus Wall of the Providence App, and communicate the same to all students and employees via email.
• In the event of winter weather cancellations, we will post the information before 7:00 a.m.
• Employees and students are expected to check the Providence Home Page and the Providence App for more detailed and updated information.

Class Cancellation

• When main highways to campus are not recommended for travel, classes will be cancelled. The School will remain open, and employees are expected to make their way to work when they feel it is safe to do so (See Poor Weather Conditions).  
• In all circumstances of class cancellation, evening classes, rehearsals and practices will be cancelled as well. Faculty and students are expected to check the Providence website and the Campus Wall on the Providence App. 
• If classes are cancelled, employees are not permitted to proceed with scheduled events at their discretion.

School Closure

• When the RCMP close the highways (59 and/or 75), the Otterburne campus will be closed.
• In the event of a campus closure, employees will be required to work remotely from home. Employees who are unable to work remotely, based on supervisor confirmation, may stay home with no assigned duties. In both cases, employees will be paid for the full day.

Poor Weather Conditions

• When weather conditions are poor, but the campus remains open, supervisors will provide direction as to whether the employee should make their way to campus or work remotely from home.
• Employees who are unable to work remotely, based on supervisor confirmation, may stay home with no assigned duties, and will be paid for the full day.
• If the employee is required to work on campus, and the supervisor and employee have differing opinions regarding the safety of driving conditions, the employee may choose to stay home and use vacation time or banked time off.

This memo provides a summary of the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”), which came into effect July 1, 2014. Providence has reviewed and determined the nature and purpose of all outgoing electronic communications, primarily to ascertain if they are related to Providence’s core activities or fall within one of the four exemptions, or may be viewed as commercial, in which case further analysis has been taken.

The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) regulates the sending of commercial electronic messages (CEMs). The law took effect on July 1, 2014 and prevents the distribution of commercial messages sent through electronic means, such as emails, newsletters, text messages, and direct messaging on social media. The new law also requires that all electronic messages clearly identify the sender and include an unsubscribe option. The legislation requires that you must have permission before you communicate electronically with an individual to send a Commercial Electronic Message (CEM).

A CEM is defined as commercial if it encourages participation in a commercial activity. The term commercial activity means any activity that is of commercial nature, whether or not the person who carries out the activity expects a profit.

Providence Communications

Providence is of the opinion that electronic communications relating to its core educational activities, broadly defined, are not “of a commercial character”. Thus, CASL does not regulate communications pertaining to our core educational activities. Our core activities relate to education in all its many-faceted aspects, and to the maintenance of an educational community. Thus, the new law will not regulate our communications with:

• Existing or prospective students, for any kind of educational program, and for any aspect of the educational relationship, including residence space, meal plans, etc: or
• Alumni in relation to educational activities and the maintenance of an educational community relationship (e.g. lectures, reunions, alumni events).

In addition, there are some exemptions to the law. Emails sent from Providence accounts that do not relate to core educational activities may be exempt from the law if they are emails that are sent:

• For fundraising purposes;
• To businesses with which Providence conducts business, in the normal course of business;
• By one Providence employee to another Providence employee; and
• By a Providence employee to her/his friends or family members.

Electronic communication sent out from Providence deemed "of a commercial character” would include (but is not limited to): messages regarding special offers, contests or promotions that are typically outside of our educational programming etc.

Consent

If the communication is commercial, and is not otherwise exempt, express or implied consent is required to send it. In the case of “an existing business or non-business relationship”, the legislation provides a transitional period of three years from July 1, 2014 during which consent to receive emails can be implied, and during which you can receive express consent. Express consent requires three things:

1. Consent (e.g. completed by clicking on a button that says ‘I consent’ to a specific kind of communication);
2. Identification of the person on whose behalf the message is sent (in our case this will be Providence, and it will be best practice to identify a specific contact/dept. within Providence relevant to the communication begin sent); and
3. An unsubscribe mechanism.

When you give your consent, you agree to receive messages with commercial content from Providence. You may unsubscribe at any time. Your consent will be recorded. For emails of commercial character only: You may continue to receive emails for a period of 18 months if we have your implied consent. You can unsubscribe from any emails at any time.

When you unsubscribe from one email, you may still receive messages that come from a variety of other departments within Providence and each department maintains their own list. Every email that Providence sends has its own unsubscribe button, unsubscribing from one email does not affect other departments.

Providence University College and Theological Seminary believes that this legislation should have only a small impact on the institution since most of our communications pertain to our core activities, which are not of a commercial character. If further guidance is required, please contact pr@prov.ca. For more information on CASL please see https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/internet/anti.htm.

Last Updated: August 21, 2019. Providence maintains an official presence on social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and our Providence Mobile App.

Providence social media platforms exist to highlight topics related to the Providence community and its mission to engage the culture and change the world. As a Christian academic community, we do covenant:

• To practice a vital and vibrant life of individual and corporate worship of the one true God;
• To pursue moral excellence in every aspect of our life and relationships;
• To steward our time, talent, treasure, body, and the environment to the glory of God;
• To exemplify the gospel of grace by upholding the dignity of, showing respect to, and serving all people regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or culture;
• To maintain a living and verbal witness to the grace of God;
• To practice love, grace, truth, and generosity, and eschew offensive, manipulative, harmful, and deceptive behavior;
• To sacrifice our own selves for the good of the community and for the sake of the gospel; and
• When we sin, to forgive and be reconciled to one another and to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

This community covenant guides our approach and policy regarding social media.

Conduct

We encourage you to share feedback and comments on our social media websites and on our app, however, these are moderated online discussion sites, not public forums. We expect remarks to be on-topic and respectful of the rights and opinions of others.

Providence is not responsible for comments or posts made by visitors on our social media websites. Such content does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Providence University College or Providence Theological Seminary.

Once posted, we reserve the right to delete comments, images, or links that contain:

• Offensive language;
• Personal attacks of any kind;
• Improper comments that target any ethnic, racial, or religious group;
• Spam or certain links to other sites;
• Clearly off-topic content;
• Infringements on copyrights or trademarks;
• Any content deemed to be in violation of the above covenant.

If you have any questions concerning Providence social media properties, please contact us at publicrelations@prov.ca.

Last Updated: September, 2019

Introduction

Providence University College and Theological Seminary (Providence) respects the privacy of all visitors to our website. We do not automatically gather any personal information from you, such as your name, phone number or email address. This information is only obtained if you provide it voluntarily, by contacting us via email or through an online web submission form. Any personal information you do provide through our website is managed according to principles of our Institutional Privacy Policy.

At the point of collection, you will be informed that your personal information is being collected, the purpose for which it is being collected, and that you have a right to access the collected information. Providence is the sole owner of the information collected on our website.

I. Information Collected in Emails and Web Forms

If you should choose to provide us with personal information as in an email or by filling out a form and submitting it to us through our website, we will use that information to respond to your message and to help us get the information you have requested. We do not collect personal information for third-party commercial marketing or distribution to any private organizations. Messages sent via the Internet can be intercepted. If you are concerned about sending your personal information to us via the Internet, you can use another method such as fax, regular mail or in person.

• Product Orders
  If you purchase a product from us, we request certain personally identifiable information from you on our web order forms. We use this information for billing purposes to fill your orders. When your order status changes, you may also receive email notifications. If we have trouble processing an order or fulfilling your request, we will use this information to contact you.
• Informational Inquiries
  If you request information about a product or service, we will communicate with you in response to your inquiry, to provide the information you have requested. We may, depending upon the importance and urgency of the information request, choose to contact you via telephone or postal mail.
• Registration Forms
  If you register for a course or service, we may require that you provide certain personally identifiable information, including your name, postal address, email address, phone number, alternate contact information, credit card number and, in some instances, your social insurance number. We may also require you to submit other information relevant to the course or service. Only information that is needed to complete the processing of your registration will be collected.
• Events and Conferences
  Our website contains registration forms for events and conferences. These forms are designed to register your place in the event and collect basic information that we need to organize the event and ensure we meet the needs of participants.
• Donations
  When you donate to us, we collect personal information from you. This information is used for the purposes of having an accurate record of your involvement, ensuring appropriate use of your giving, contacting you to acknowledge your gifts, sending receipts, informing you about ourselves or offering you further opportunities to partner with us.
• Payments
  Where financial information is requested, such as completing an online transaction, personal identifiable information along with credit card numbers and expiration dates are required for routine processing of payments.
• Surveys and Feedback
  We may occasionally provide you the opportunity to participate in surveys or feedback forms on our site. If you participate, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys or feedback forms is completely voluntary, and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose personal information.

Where personal information is provided that enters a system of records, it is collected in compliance with the Institutional Privacy Policy. Providence collects, creates and maintains information for the purposes of admission, registration, fundraising and other activities directly related to its education programs. Information collected is only kept for the length of time necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. If you wish to decline or withdraw consent to your personal information being collected, used and disclosed for the purposes described above, please contact publicrelations@prov.ca.

II. Information Collected Automatically Through the Internet

Providence logs requests to our server. These logs capture computer information, navigation and page requests. The information collected does not identify who you are. Other information, such as your domain name or IP address, may identify you depending on the naming standards followed by your Internet service provider. You may wish to ask them about their policies and practices.

Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of text information that is sent to your browser when you access a web site. Your browser will return this cookie information to the domain where the cookie originated. Cookies are destroyed after the visitor leaves our site. The cookies are used to track the browser's stay at our site to enable the following functions:

• Payment processing for online purchases and registrations
• Enable user login function and track login sessions
• Intelligent site navigation

Providence also uses Google Analytics to collect statistics on visitors to our websites. Providence only allows Google to collect analytics for users that are not logged in. As soon as an individual is logged into the Providence website, the analytic code is disabled for that session. If you are concerned about the use of cookies, you can refer to the help information in your browser software for information on how to disable cookies. If you wish to delete cookies from your machine, consult your browser’s help files for instructions on how to do so.

Web Visit Logs

Providence routinely collects and stores information from online visitors to help manage our web site and improve services. This information includes the pages visited on the site, and the date and time of the visit, the internet address of the referring site, the domain name and IP address from which the access occurred, and the version of browser used. We make no attempt to identify individual visitors from this information.

Security

For site security purposes, we employ software and server programs to monitor network traffic that identifies unauthorized attempts access information, to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. In the course of such monitoring, these programs may detect such information as e-mail headers, addresses from network packets, and other information. Information from these activities is used only for the purpose of maintaining the security and performance of Providence’s network and computer systems. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Links to Other Sites

The Providence website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content and the privacy practices of other websites and encourage you to examine each site's privacy policy and disclaimers. This will enable you to make your own decisions regarding the accuracy, reliability, and correctness of material and information found.

III. Access to Information

Providence realizes that users have a right to view information collected about them. Users may access their own personal information and contact Providence administration through phone (1-204-433-7488 / 1-800-668-7768), fax (1-204-433-7158) or email (publicrelations@prov.ca) about inaccuracies they may find. While Providence cannot guarantee immediate compliance, we will make every effort to assure that such requests are carried out to the fullest of our ability and in a reasonable time frame. If there are any further questions regarding information usage or handling, please contact Providence administration.

IV. Data Storage and Security

Providence is dedicated to preventing unauthorized data access, maintaining data accuracy, and ensuring the appropriate use of information. We strive to put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial safeguards to secure the information we collect online. To this end we use firewalls, data disconnection from the Internet, and regular backups. If you have more concerns about how data is stored and protected at Providence, please feel free to contact Providence administration through email at publicrelations@prov.ca.

V. Terms of Use

By using Providence web services you agree not to use this service to do any of the following:

• Harass, stalk, defame, abuse, threaten or otherwise violate a persons legal rights including their privacy rights.
• Mass collect information about others (harvest), including e-mail addresses, mailing address and phone numbers.
• Create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others.
• Impersonate someone else.
• Promote or Post any profane, harassing, threatening, obscene, defamatory, unlawful, vulgar, hateful, or indecent material.
• Promote or Post any files that contain images or software protected by intellectual property laws, copyright or trademark laws without proper permission from the owner.
• Upload files that contain viruses, worms, or any similar program that may cause harm to another’s computer or data.
• Use our web systems in connection with junk email, pyramid schemes, chain letters, or spamming
• Prevent another user from accessing the site or the tools therein.
• Attempt to hack into, deny service to, or disrupt service to any Providence web system.
• Promote, Post, or Participate in any activity in violation of our Community Standards. 

Providence reserves the right to remove any information deemed inappropriate or infraction of these terms of use at its sole discretion. Providence also reserves the right to terminate anyone’s access to our services without notice, at any time, for any reason.

Providence Theological Seminary is a Christian academic community in the evangelical tradition in service to the Church through the preparation and support of leaders, resource development, and the facilitation of theological reflection. Assessment instruments for educational effectiveness include a final year Integrative class including a paper for Master of Divinity students as well as other instruments such as Practicum classes for counseling programs. PTS chooses to use the following assessment tools to measure its educational effectiveness.

› Average Time to Completion (2016/17 grads)

ATS Graduating Student Questionnaire (2016-2017)

(1-much weaker; 2-weaker; 3-about the same; 4-stronger; 5-much stronger)

› Measure of Personal Growth After Theological Program (average for all programs)

› Level of Satisfaction with Progress in Skills Related to Future Work (all programs)

› Overall Experience During Theological Program (all programs)

We strive to maintain a strong and healthy community at Providence for all students, staff and faculty. In order to do that, the following policies have been laid out.

Policies & Procedures