Understanding University Records
Documents, files, and other records created in the course of your work for AUC are important assets for the university, and essential to its operations. AUC employees are responsible for the proper handling of these records, including ensuring that documents can be retrieved when needed, and kept for as long as necessary, for administrative, legal, financial, or historical purposes. This involves maintaining documents properly in your office, and correctly dealing with inactive (infrequently used) records.
About University Records
What are university records?
University records include all documents, files, or any other kind of recorded information created or received by AUC in the course of its operations. Records can come in any physical form, both "hard copy" formats (like paper, photographs, tape, etc.) and electronic or "soft copy" format (like email or computer files). Records are property of AUC, and so their handling must conform to university regulations.
Documents and files that do not fall under the category of university records include:
- Faculty members’ personal research and teaching materials (but records connected with a faculty member’s administrative or committee activities are considered university records)
- Personal or private papers not connected with official university operations, such as employees’ personal copies of employment benefits documents
- Employees’ own records of training or professional memberships
- Manuals and other documentation for office equipment like computers
- Reference materials like dictionaries, magazines and professional journals, handbooks or manuals not related to AUC, etc.
Why keep inactive university records?
Records are created to accomplish an office’s specific activities and goals, but even after records are no longer actively used they continue to have important functions:
- Records offer evidence of AUC’s compliance with laws or professional practices and define the University’s rights and obligations. Financial accounts, contracts, personnel files, student academic records, and policy documents are examples of this kind of documentation. The University Records Retention Plan applies legal and financial management regulations for how long these kinds of records must be retained.
- Records identified as having long-term historical value document AUC's educational and service mission, the activities and accomplishments of its administrators, faculty, and staff, and the life of its students. The University Archives collects and maintains these records, and makes them available to the AUC community and external researchers (after an initial period of time, depending upon the nature of the material, during which their use is restricted).
What are your responsibilities?
Records are AUC property, so treat them with the care and attention due to any university assets.
- Retain records for the period of time indicated by the University Records Retention Plan, storing them in the Records Center if appropriate.
- Do not destroy University records without following AUC Records Management procedures, including consulting the University Records Retention Plan and receiving necessary approvals.
- Do not destroy records related to a pending or likely legal action, audit or investigation, and notify AUC Records Management if records from your office that are stored in the Records Center fall under this category.
- Do not remove University records from University premises without consulting with AUC Records Management.
Guidance on How Long to Keep Records
AUC Records Management offers guidelines on how long offices should keep records. The tool we provide for this is the University Records Retention Plan, which lists the kinds of records created and used by university offices and indicates how long those records should be kept. It also prescribes what should happen with records after that time period: destruction by the office, transfer to the Records Center for storage and later disposal, or selection for permanent preservation in the University Archives. Records Management staff members are available to assist offices with applying the retention plan to their own records and can consult with offices about solutions to their particular needs.
University Records Retention Plan
Storage in the Records Center
AUC Records Management operates a Records Center (Room G037 on the ground floor of the Administration Building, with an annex in the Facilities Building) to provide storage for university records. When records are no longer actively used, offices may transfer them to the Records Center to make better use of their own storage space. The Guide to Transferring Records to the Records Center describes the procedures for sending records for storage, and Records Management staff members are available to assist offices with this process.
The Records Center facilities offer secure, climate-controlled storage for records, which are housed in cartons and registered to permit efficient retrieval and ensure their proper disposition. A staff member is present in the Records Center in the Administration Building from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm to handle requests to retrieve records, and a user reading table and photocopying services are available. Retrieval and use of records stored in the Records Center is restricted to staff from the unit that made the deposit.
Disposal of Records
AUC Records Management provides shredding services for documents when the University Records Retention Plan authorizes their destruction. Upon receiving clearance from the donor, records stored in the Records Center that have reached the end of their retention period will be shredded. The Records Disposal Guide below describes disposal procedures for records stored in the Records Center and for records to be discarded directly by offices. Records Management staff members are available to assist offices with this process.
Transferring Records and Donating Material to the Archives
Records
University records include all documents, files, or any other kind of recorded information created or received by AUC in the course of its operations. When these are no longer actively used by the originating office, university policy requires them to be transferred to the University Archives, or its associated program AUC Records Management. University Archives staff routinely collect and permanently maintain records with long-term, historical value. Non-permanent records are collected, stored, and eventually discarded by AUC Records Management staff. For information on the transfer, storage, and retention of inactive or infrequently used records, please see the webpage for AUC Records Management.
Publications
The University Archives actively and continuously collects materials published for distribution by AUC offices and departments, as well as by students and other university organizations. Such materials include:
- Brochures, pamphlets, catalogs, and other items describing the mission and activities of university units and groups
- Announcements, memoranda, calendars, flyers, posters, and other items about events and activities
- Newsletters, magazines, journals, newspapers, conference proceedings, and other items produced by AUC units and student organizations
- Directories and policy and procedures documents (manuals, etc.) written by and for AUC units
- Publications by outside organizations about AUC, such as newspaper clippings
If your department produces these types of publications, please submit 3 copies to the University Archives (which collects these materials in both paper/hard copy form as well as digital/electronic format like PDF files). These publications will be safely and securely stored and preserved for your reference, as well as for use by researchers.
Personal and Professional Papers
The University Archives also collect personal and professional papers (such as correspondence and research materials) from faculty, staff, administrators, and students relating to their academic interests, external affiliations, and university activities. Doing so will provide future generations the opportunity to learn from and build upon your research and other endeavors, and your unique contributions will be remembered and shared. A donation can range in size from multiple boxes of material, to back issues of university yearbooks or student newspapers, to a single report or curriculum vitae.
For more information, including donations of other kinds of materials, check Donating to RBSCL.