Records Management - FAQ

Everyone is responsible for managing records and information. 

Records need to be reviewed annually for disposal: 

• Review your records inventory. 
• If any new record series have been created, add them to the records schedule in consultation with the NDSU Records Management leadership. 
• Properly dispose of records in accordance with the disposal guidelines in the Records Retention Schedules used at NDSU. 

No. Records must be managed and disposed in accordance with North Dakota state law. 

Yes. Email is a method of communication that is no different than a paper records.

Guidance and recommendations on management and disposal of e-mail records is provided at E-Records Management.  Questions may be directed to NDSU.RecordsManagement@ndsu.edu. 

NDSU has been advised that the University System will be responsible for a technical solution that will manage compliance with the new email retention requirements without the need for action by each employee. Accordingly, all NDSU employees are being asked to continue to follow their regular retention procedures for all records, including emails. In other words, continue to treat an email in accordance with the record series associated with its content. 

If a particular email constitutes a record and has been saved as a pdf or txt document, it is still considered an email if an open records request for “email documents” is received. An email record that is saved in another format is still considered an email record. 

Transcripts of phone messages may or may not be records, and you’ll need to make that determination.

If they are not records, or if they are convenience copies for you, please delete them.

If you’ve determined that a phone message transcript is a record that you need to manage as the Office of Record Retention, you’ll want to identify its record series, using the instructions at https://kb.ndsu.edu/page.php?id=99046 . Then, move the record out of your phone/email account and into a system in which you can retain it - and then dispose of it - as directed in the Records Retention Schedule; information on storage solutions is available at https://kb.ndsu.edu/page.php?id=102743 . 

Now that we are using the Zoom phone service, deleted recordings will remain available for 30 days in the Trash folder and will be automatically permanently deleted after 270 days.

A convenience copy is any unofficial, duplicate copy of a record. Such as a paper copy of a digital report or shared file that is kept solely for reference and not to be acted upon or changed further. 

Unlike official records, these copies are not subject to formal retention requirements. Convenience copies do not need to be included in a department's Annual Disposal.

Once a record has been imaged electronically, the electronic version becomes the official record and should be tested for electronic integrity three months after imaging. At that time, the paper version becomes a convenience copy and is to be managed as such. 

Copy holders are individuals who are in possession of copies of records but are not the Office of Record Retention. They will dispose of their copies any time prior to the expiration of their retention period, in the method specified in the Records Retention Schedule, and with no need to include them in their annual Records Disposal Reports. 

As soon as you identify a document as a convenience copy, mark it as such: either write “convenience copy” on it, get a “convenience copy” stamp made and stamp the document, or, if it’s a PDF, add “convenience copy” text to it. That way, as time passes, you won’t need to try to remember if a particular document is the official record or a convenience copy. 

We established the Nov. 30 deadline for NDSU because our office needs to compile, tabulate and sum up all the NDSU reports and submit our cumulative report before the end of the calendar year. This takes some time, so we set our deadline a month ahead of the end of the calendar year to ensure that we get the NDSU report to the Bismarck ITD office on time. If after submitting your disposal report you find that you still have records to dispose of between Dec. 1 and Nov. 30, you can go ahead and report the additional disposal data; if we haven’t yet submitted our cumulative report to Bismarck, we will include that additional information to it, otherwise, it will be the start of the next calendar year’s disposal report

Unit Records Coordinators coordinate the transfer of paper and electronic records to Archives as per the requirements in the Records Retention Schedule. Instructions on this process, and the transmittal forms to be filled out, are available at https://library.ndsu.edu/ndsuarchives/collections/university-archives

The procedure for handling public records request, along with additional information related to identification and management of public/open/confidential records, is described in NDSU Policy 718; this policy is available at  https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/718.pdf 

It is strongly encouraged that travel authorizations be provided with T&E [Travel & Expense] reports. It is much easier for audit purposes to have all documentation attached.

Also, when the travel authorization is attached to the T&E report, it will become the official record and responsibility of Accounting to manage this record, rather than the department.

Departments would then only be responsible for keeping the original travel authorization for the current fiscal year plus one additional fiscal year, at which point, that document becomes a convenience copy.

Individual colleges or departments may require the inclusion of travel authorizations with the T&E reports.

Following are information and resources that will assist you in the management of both paper and electronic Student Course Response Questionnaires data and reports. 

Notably, once a summary report is delivered to an academic department, raw data is no longer considered a record and may be disposed. The summary report will be the record to be managed according to the records retention schedules used at NDSU.

A. The record series for these records is from the NDUS-general records retention schedule. 

B. The control number is 020207, and the record series title is “Student Evaluations of Course and Instructor.” 

C. The description of this record series has recently been changed to read: “This record series contains a summary report of the evaluations done on advisors, instructors, and courses, including all numerical and narrative responses from individual evaluations. Following the delivery of the summary report, the raw data has no retention value and can be destroyed in accordance with the individual institution's procedure. Departmental office may maintain a copy of the instructor evaluation summaries in the faculty personnel file." ***The description previously read, “This record series contains a summary report of the evaluations done on advisors, instructors, and courses. Department office may maintain a copy of the instructor evaluation summaries in the faculty personnel file.” 

D. The retention period is 10 years after the current fiscal year. 

E. Academic departments may keep these records or, prior to the end of the retention period, have them added to the corresponding faculty personnel files.

 

Please note that the description of record series #600606, “Faculty Personnel Files,” from the NDUS-general records retention schedule, has recently been changed: 

i. This record series now reads: “This record series contains information that documents the faculty member's work history. It includes information such as job title, rank and education, employment background, grant work, training, and certifications. This may include copies of a request to recruit, request to appoint, initial vitae, letter of intent, letters of reference, academic records, supplements, tenure forms, yearly contracts, listing of grant work, and students' evaluations of course and instructor summary sheets. This includes both academic and clinical faculty. Note: personnel information may exist in different locations (i.e., department, provost office, etc.).” ***The description previously read, “This record series contains information that documents the faculty member's work history. It includes information such as job title, rank and education, employment background, grant work, training, and certifications. This may include copies of a request to recruit, request to appoint, initial vitae, letter of intent, letters of reference, academic records, supplements, tenure forms, yearly contracts, listing of grant work, and students' evaluations of course and instructor summary sheets. This includes both academic and clinical faculty. Note: The official personnel file may consist of different information than the department. This includes appointments and contracts, summer session faculty files, and Extension Program Instructor Files.” 

ii. The retention period is six years after termination. 

Notes and agendas of informal staff meetings, such as check-ins, updates, discussions of workloads, etc., where no voting or departmental decisions are made, are not considered official minutes or agendas. Rather, they are informal notes - not records - and may be shredded when they are no longer needed. 

An inactive record series is one that is no longer in use. This could be because a new record series replaced it, or because the types of records in it are no longer being created. If you have records that you feel belong in a particular record series and you see that that record series is inactive, you'll need to find an active record series that fits. If you can't find such a record series, please contact the Records Management leadership.