Records Management - Disposal Resources

Below are the various resources available for the disposal of records.

The Disposal Process

Records disposal is the responsibility of all NDSU faculty, staff and students who manage records; the process is facilitated by the Unit Records Coordinators.

During a department's annual disposal, employees will sort through their records and fill out the Employee Record Disposal Form.
These forms are collected by the department's Unit Records Coordinator (URC)
The URC will compile all of the information, and then record their unit's disposal data through the Annual Disposal Form in the NDSU Records Management App.
At the end of every calendar year, NDSU's Records Management leadership submits a cumulative university disposal report to the ND Information Technology Department.

Records disposal is to be completed for each fiscal year, and Unit Records Coordinators are to record their unit's disposal data using the NDSU Records Management App, by Nov. 30 of that year.

Records Disposal Process For Unit Records Coordinators

NDSU Records Management App: Records Disposal & Lookup for URCs

Disposals for Unit Records Coodinators are facilitated through the NDSU Records Management App. This Microsoft Power App is intended for use by Unit Records Coordinators.

Search Records Series in the NDSU and University System Records Retention Schedules
Submit Annual Records Disposals

If you are unable to access the app due to sharing permissions or encounter other errors, please contact ndsu.recordsmanagement@ndsu.edu

Guidance for completing the NDSU Disposal form for Unit Records Coordinators:

To record the disposal data of each record series, go to the NDSU Records Management App
1. If it is your first time using the app, you will be prompted to login with your NDSU credentials and allow access to Sharepoint.
2. If you are unable to access the app, select "request
Your email address, primary phone number and primary department are auto-filled.
Use the search bar to find and select the Control Number for the records being disposed of
1. If a control number is unknown, use the Record Series Search tool from the left side menu to search for records series by title or description.
After selecting a Control Number, the record series information fields will be auto-filled. Verify these fields match your records to confirm that you are using the correct Record Control Number.
Enter the volume of the records being disposed of. Volume should be entered in inches for paper records and megabytes for electronic records; enter both if applicable.
Once you have confirmed your record series selection and measurements are correct, press submit. You will be notified upon successful submission.
1. If you determine later that something was entered incorrectly, please contact NDSU’s Records Management leadership at ndsu.recordsmanagement@ndsu.edu
Repeat this process for as many records that you have to dispose.

For each submission, you will receive a system-generated confirmation email. You can keep these emails for reference if you wish; they are considered convenience copies, not records – the official records are what you submitted, and ND ITD is the Office of Record Retention.

Exceptions must be documented and submitted to the Records Management leadership at ndsu.recordsmanagement@ndsu.edu

Record Disposal Process for Employees

Guidance for completing the NDSU Disposal form for Employees:

Download the Employee Record Disposal Form.
Following the identification line (your name, dept., phone number and email address), is the table in which you will list each of the records you are disposing of. The row of headings below “Record Description” and “Volume Measurement” correspond to the headings of the Records Retention Schedule (RRS).
Before you go any further, please make sure you are the Office of Record Retention for each particular record series.
1. If you are NOT the Office of Record Retention but only a copyholder, you should NOT include information on the disposal of copies.
2. If you are not sure whether or not you are the Office of Record Retention, please contact your Unit Records Coordinator.
In the column below “Record Series Title,” you can add detail to the title if you wish – for example, if you are disposing of Student Course Work and you want a record of which years or which course is being disposed of, you can certainly include that information next to the Record Series Title.
The column titled “Department: ND Univ. System or NDSU” refers to which department is the owner of the RRS of the record series in that row: is it the ND University System RRS, or the NDSU-specific RRS? This is important information, because numbers from the NDUS record series may correspond with a different one in the NDSU-specific RRS. (i.e. numbers can be the same in each series for different records. Numbers are not unique.)
When you have completed the form, please email it or deliver it to your Unit Records Coordinator.

Disposition Options (Disposal Methods)

Paper Records

Recycle: place in a recycling bin
Retain: retain within department
Shred*: coordinate appropriate disposal
Archive: if you are the Office of Record Retention, give the records to be archived to your Unit Records Coordinator who will then coordinate the transfer to Archives.

Electronic Records

Recycle: delete if stored on a hard drive (computer or external), on a network drive or within an electronic imaging system. If stored on a floppy, CD, DVD, USB, tape or other electronic media, place in recycle bin
Retain: retain within department
Shred*: securely destroy Archive: if you are the Office of Record Retention, give the records to be archived to your Unit Records Coordinator who will then coordinate the transfer to Archives.

*Shred

Records with a disposal method of "shred" often contain confidential information and must be disposed of properly. Paper or microform records must be shredded in an office shredder or through a shredding service. If you have large volumes of documents to shred please contact the NDSU Purchasing Office for options (there will be a charge). Other media should also be disposed of so as to destroy any data. For electronic media this may mean that the device has to be physically destroyed or completely overwritten with data at the end of its life.

Litigation Holds

North Dakota Century Code 44-04-18.12. Cooperative investigations and litigation:

"A record acquired by the office of attorney general from a governmental agency or a nonpublic entity is exempt if the attorney general determines:

The record is necessary to monitor or enforce compliance with a law or order or to further a civil investigation or litigation by the state;
The record is treated as confidential or privileged by the provider of the records; and
The provider of the records has not agreed to waive the privilege relating to or confidentiality of the record."

Information subject to a litigation hold should not be disposed of until the hold is canceled or removed.

If you are notified of pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation, ongoing audit or open records request, there may be an impact to the management and/or disposal of your records; please immediately contact the attorney assigned to NDSU.