Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
The version of this rule that includes
live links to associated resources is online at
https://www.ohio.edu/policy/93-002.html
(A)
Overview
This policy establishes general
guidelines and procedures by which to assure economy and efficiency in the
identification, retention, retrieval, preservation, and destruction of
university records in compliance with state and federal
regulations.
(B)
Authority and history
According to division (B) of section
149.33
of the Revised
Code, the boards of trustees of state-supported institutions of higher
education shall have full responsibility for establishing and administering
records programs for their respective institutions. The boards shall apply
efficient and economical management methods to the creation, utilization,
maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposition of the records of their
respective institutions.
Resolution 1992-1218 of the Ohio
university board of trustees empowers the president of the university to
appoint a standing university records committee "which shall be responsible for
actions regarding the university's records management policies and procedures."
The same resolution authorized a "university-wide records management policy
which shall oversee the creation, maintenance, and disposition of all records
in units and sub-units of the university."
In keeping with that resolution, the
university records committee has directed "provision for the equipping and
professional staffing of the records management office." which, it charged,
"shall monitor the creation, maintenance, and disposition of university records
throughout the system."
Each planning unit head, or his or her
designee, who oversees custody of university records is. therefore, responsible
for consulting the university archivist and records manager to establish and
maintain compliance with current records retention guidelines specific to
records that are created or received by their office.
The university records committee also
recognized the Ohio university archives "as the official repository for Ohio
university records of enduring and permanent value." and the committee
established a records storage facility "to hold records during their inactive
phase, prior to disposal or transfer to the archives."
(C)
Definitions and
legal requirements
University records and public access to
them are defined and explained under policy 40.007.
All questions about laws related to
public requests for access to university records should be directed to the
university's office of legal affairs.
(D)
Records retention
manual
The manual titled "Records Retention
for Public Colleges and Universities in Ohio," represents the work of a special
committee of the inter-university council of Ohio in consultation with an
international records specialist. This manual shall be used by the university
records manager as the basic guideline for determining the legal retention
periods for university records. If, in the future, the inter-university council
of Ohio updates the most recent records retention manual or creates or adopts a
different manual, such new manual shall be used by the university records
manager for determining legal retention periods for university
records.
(E)
Process
The establishment of a centralized
records management office is necessary to ensure the university's consistent
compliance with state and federal records retention requirements and to
facilitate removal, storage, and destruction or preservation of university
records. Therefore, the person designated as the university records manager,
guided by the recommendations of the records retention manual, is authorized by
the Ohio university board of trustees to determine the disposition of
university records. Issues of the disposition of university records and
subsequent removal, storage, and destruction or preservation of those records
shall be determined in the manner established by parts (F) to (L) of this
policy.
(F)
University records committee
The university records committee serves
two roles: it provides specific oversight for this policy and it is the policy
area committee ("PAC") for data handling, including university data
classification according to sensitivity. Other policies (in preparation) will
address the general role of information technology PACs and the other specific
roles of this committee.
The university records committee is a
standing committee, and so will be staffed through the committee on committees
process. The committee will be chaired by the chief information officer. It
will include the university records manager and the following people (or
someone designated by each of them):
(1)
Vice president
for advancement
(2)
Vice president for research and creative
activities
(3)
General counsel (advisory)
(4)
Chief human
resource officer
(5)
Information security manager
(6)
Dean of the
heritage college of osteopathic medicine
(7)
University
registrar
(8)
Controller
(9)
Chief audit
executive (advisory)
(10)
Chief marketing officer
(11)
Director of
government relations
(12)
Executive dean of regional campuse
(13)
Assistant vice
president for safety and risk management
(14)
Associate
provost for institutional research and effectiveness
The committee shall seek advice from
and provide advice to the university records manager; provide interpretation of
this policy, as needed; recommend changes to this policy, as needed; review and
provide feedback on the electronic records guidelines published by the office
of information technology (see part (L) of this policy); and identify other
opportunities to improve the handling of university records.
(G)
Records retention
All staff of the university whose
regular or occasional performance of functions involves creating, receiving, or
maintaining files, records, or documents pertaining to the duties and functions
of their offices are required to observe the following:
(1)
Records that
document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures,
operations, or other official activities of university offices and personnel
are the property of Ohio university and the state of Ohio.
(2)
Such property is
not to be permanently removed or destroyed except in accordance with the
schedule for that unit as approved by:
(a)
The administrator
in charge of the area in which the records are generated or received;
and
(b)
The university records manager.
(3)
The
head of each planning unit or his or her designee will determine in conjunction
with the university records manager the appropriate retention periods for the
records series that are created, received, or maintained by their respective
units.
(H)
Inventories and schedules for university records
It shall be the responsibility of each
planning unit head or his or her designee, with guidance and approval of the
university records manager, to conduct records inventories and analyses and to
establish the official records retention schedules for their respective units.
This shall be done in the following manner:
(1)
Each planning
unit that generates, receives, or maintains university records shall complete
and maintain up to date an inventory of their various series of records
including such information as the names of the records series, descriptions of
the purposes for each series, and the date(s) of each series.
(2)
Each planning
unit, using the records retention manual as a guide, shall then submit to the
university records manager for approval a draft schedule for the retention and
disposition of each records series thusly inventoried.
(3)
Once the draft
schedule is approved and signed by the university records manager and by the
head of the planning unit that has provided the draft proposal, a final records
retention schedule shall be produced for that unit by the university records
manager.
(I)
Removal and storage of university records
(1)
Records for which
retention dates have been officially scheduled shall be retained until such
time as their retention dates have been reached. The university records manager
may provide space on a limited basis at a safe, secure records storage facility
where units may store records that have not yet reached their scheduled
expiration dates. Records maintenance personnel from each unit that is granted
permission to transfer records from their unit to the records storage facility
must generate and maintain a complete inventory of the records that they are
transferring to the storage facility, and they must provide a copy of the
inventory to the university records manager. The records manager will provide
records storage boxes to the units transferring records, and the records
generating unit will be responsible for packing the boxes and labeling those
boxes so that the contents of each box may be easily identified for retrieval
or destruction.
(2)
Some records, which have longer or permanent retention
periods, also may be stored on a limited basis at the records storage facility
with the approval of the university records manager, who may first require the
unit to make arrangements to have those records more appropriately preserved;
see part (J) ("Preservation of University Records") of this
policy.
(3)
Records that have been transferred to the records
storage facility are still considered to be the property of the offices from
which they have been transferred, and requests to the university records
manager for retrievals of copies of those records or for retrievals of the
original records in full or in part may be made by the offices from which the
records were sent for storage. No record(s) shall be retrieved or reproduced
from the storage facility at the request of anyone other than the records
maintaining personnel or administrators of the offices from which those records
were originally transferred unless permission is otherwise granted by the
office from which the record(s) were transferred, except in cases of official
university investigation, responding to requests from the office of legal
affairs, or for audit purposes.
(J)
Preservation of
university records
(1)
Records that have been identified in the schedule as
"archival" for their enduring historical value may be transferred to the
university archives upon the approval of the university archivist. The
university archivist may supply standard size records boxes for units that are
preparing to send records to the archives. University records and the boxes in
which they are transferred to the archives shall be clearly identified and
labeled before transfer, and units transferring records to the archives shall
supply the archives with a complete inventory of the records being
transferred.
(2)
Records that are transferred to university archives
(located in Alden library) become the administrative responsibility of the
archives, and, unless otherwise stipulated by agreement, such records shall
reside permanently in the archives. Most university records housed in the
archives are subject to unrestricted public access. The relatively few series
of archived university records to which access is legally restricted may be
examined by staff from the office of origin of those records upon the request
of the administrator of that office and in agreement with the university
archivist.
(3)
In order to help guarantee the preservation, integrity,
and security of records that have been turned over to the archives, access to
records housed in the archives -- whether by the general public or by
university staff -- shall be on-premise only. Archive staff may agree to
photocopy or scan records for a fee if the condition and integrity of the
original records will not be in any way damaged or otherwise altered during the
process of placing them on scanners or photocopiers.
(4)
Section
9.01 of the Revised Code
authorizes microfilming the records of public offices for the purpose of
preserving them or for the purpose of conserving space. The office of the
university archivist and records manager therefore urges units that generate
large amounts of paper records that have been determined to be of enduring
administrative, legal, or historical value to make arrangements to have such
records microfilmed. Although digitizing (scanning) has become a convenient way
by which to maintain and access records that are retained over shorter periods,
microfilming is still the safest, most secure, and most durable means of
preserving records that must be retained more permanently. The university
records manager shall, upon request, supply units with information concerning
microfilming.
(K)
Disposal of university records
(1)
When a unit head
or his or her designee has determined by the retention schedule that records
within their unit have reached or have exceeded the legal retention period, and
that the records have no further administrative, legal, or historical value,
the administrative head of the unit shall arrange for the disposal of those
records.
(2)
Upon the disposal of records, the head of the unit
shall sign and maintain appropriate records documenting such information as
title, contents, and purpose of the disposed records, legal retention period,
as well as date and method of disposal.
(3)
When the
university records manager is to oversee the removal and destruction of records
that have reached their retention period from the off-site storage facility, as
identified in part (I) of this policy, the university records manager shall
first inform the responsible unit, in writing, of his or her intent to destroy
those records, preserving a copy of that notice and of the subsequent reply
from the unit acknowledging and consenting to the destruction of the
records.
(4)
Records that contain materials that are of a
confidential nature -- especially but not exclusively those records that are
included under FERPA or HIPAA stipulations -- shall be destroyed in a manner
consistent with best practices to reasonably ensure that the data is not
recoverable.
(5)
Some less-formal records that have shorter-lived
administrative or legal value are categorized as "transitory." Retention
periods for transitory records are usually event-driven, rather than being a
fixed period of time. Examples of transitory records include preliminary drafts
and notes, used in the production of university records, which are proper to
dispose of when those drafts or notes have been superseded or updated by other
records; policies and procedures documents that have been superseded or
withdrawn (university archives shall, and other offices may, retain copies of
superseded and withdrawn policies); voice mail; and records relating to
scheduling meetings and other non-public events. Such records should be
retained until they are no longer of administrative or legal value and may then
be destroyed, deleted, or purged at any time without acknowledgement or
approval of the university records manager. For further advice as to whether a
record should be classified as transitory or not, please contact the university
records manager.
(L)
Retention and
disposal guidelines for electronic records
(1)
Electronic
records, including electronic mail (e-mail) messages and personal computer disk
files, that document the organization, functions, policies, decisions,
procedures, operations, or other activities of a university office shall be
considered records in accordance with the Revised Code definition of records.
(For examples of electronic records that are not considered to be university
records see the next paragraph of this part (L)(1) of this policy.) Therefore,
all such electronic records that are generated or received by university
offices shall fall under all of the regulations established by the federal and
state law, and shall be subject to the university policies and procedures for
records retention and disposal as outlined previously in this document. For
example, the retention period for requisitions that are created or received
electronically by a university office shall be the same as the retention period
for those requisitions that are generated or received on paper or in any other
fixed medium.
Examples of electronic records that
would not fit the criteria for public records as defined by the Revised Code
would be e-mail messages of a personal nature that do not pertain in any way to
the conducting of university business, even though they were received on
university e-mail systems, and messages received from interest-group
listservis. These types of records, generally categorized as transitory, may be
deleted or purged at any time.
(2)
The office of
information technology will maintain guidelines for the appropriate management
of electronic mail online at
https://www.ohio.edu/oit/security/electronicrecords.cfm.
The version of this rule that includes
live links to associated resources is online at
https://www.ohio.edu/policy/93-002.html
