The Supervising Authority for each member, designated by the member president/CEO, has authority over the operation of small UAS. Utilizing an application process, small UAS operations must receive authority to fly from the Supervising Authority.  The Authority is empowered to:

• Approve and disapprove all UAS and model aircraft flights on property under its purview or by employees or contractors conducting UAS operations away from the member’s property under its purview so long as the location is not on property under another member’s purview;

• Manage and authorize the approval to fly UAS for hired/contracted vendors;

• Receive approval from its CEO or designee before filing with the FAA for a Public Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) or Part 107 Certificate of Waiver (CoW). If a Public COA or CoW is granted by the FAA, the Public COA or CoW must be held in the name of the system member, and a copy retained by the supervising authority. A copy of the COA must be available, either through hard copy or digitally, during the operation by the person completing the operation.

• Obtain a public agency declaration letter from the System Office of General Counsel if acquiring a public COA;

• Register all UAS flying under the Public Operations option with the FAA and retain the registration number (See Appendix B); Supervising Authority does not register the aircraft. The responsible party provides information to the supervising authority. The registration must be in the name of the member.

• Establish an approving office to receive requests to fly under COAs and ensure that all operational, notification, and reporting requirements of each COA are met. The provisions of each COA shall take precedence over other rules and regulations as directed by the FAA.  An exception for emergency response approval and use of UAS may be delegated to the incident command level if a competent qualified individual for UAS is available to manage risk and verify compliance;

• Require operators who will fly over member property to notify the member’s respective university police department (if present) of all UAS activity that will occur on the member’s campus and that is within the police department’s response area;

• Include a review by the member’s risk management department that will evaluate operational risk and make a determination on whether insurance should be procured for that operation;

• Require that all operators have contingency management and mishap response plans

• Validate that the UAS is placed on inventory and has an asset number assigned to it, regardless of the dollar amount (see Appendix C)