State policy and general law are the umbrella under which institutional policy and practice exist. Understanding that state policy often only creates parameters of acceptability, further institutional guidance is necessary to rationalize the policy. The character of employment for some constituencies,such as Classified employees, is heavily regulated by state enabling legislation such as the Virginia Personnel Act , which authorized the creation of the Department of Personnel and Training, whose express purpose, among other things, is to establish state-wide policy governing that class of employee. Longwood College has also historically permitted reasonable discretion to departments, schools, and vice presidential areas to establish additional guidance in those respective areas.
Dress codes are a good example, with individual departments free to establish their own dress codes.
In a nutshell, this environment makes for a very complicated and often confusing interplay of rules and requirements, which sometimes change depending on the class of employee affected. Policies, like contracts, never cover all possible circumstances and situations. Occasionally the language is vague. Sometimes the policy is silent to an issue. And infrequently it's just plain contradictory.