Summary
A quick reference for faculty and instructors on creating, storing, retaining, and disposing of University of Oregon records.
Body
Overview
This quick reference explains what faculty and instructors need to know about creating, storing, retaining, and disposing of University of Oregon records.
Your responsibilities and role in caring for UO records
Faculty and instructors create and receive university records every day. Common examples include:
- Emails to and from individuals and institutions in relation to UO work
- Course syllabi and Canvas content
- Research files
- Committee documents
Under Oregon law and UO policy, records created or received in the course of university business must be retained for the required period, protected as needed, and disposed of properly.
- Use UO-approved systems for university business, not personal email or personal cloud storage.
- If you are unsure where to store records or how long to keep them, consult your department’s Records Steward.
- For teaching, advising, research, service, and administrative work, identify the authoritative copy and keep it in a shared, managed location with appropriate access.
- Protect student, personnel, and other sensitive information by limiting access and using secure storage, handling, and disposal practices. FERPA guidance is available from the Registrar’s Office.
- If you are notified of a public records request, investigation, audit, or litigation hold, stop deleting potentially responsive records and follow the instructions provided.
Additional responsibilities for department chairs and program directors
- Ensure unit practices align with UO recordkeeping obligations and the unit has a Records Steward.
- Ensure the most complete reliable versions are maintained.
- Support transfer of permanent records to University Archives.
If you supervise others, you share responsibility for how records are managed in your unit.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Please select the question to view the answer.
A university record is any recorded information, in any format, that is created or received in the course of UO business. This includes paper documents, email, digital files, cloud content, chat messages, and recordings.
- Keep university records in UO-supported systems so they remain accessible to the department and others with a legitimate business need.
Retention is based on the function of the record, not its format or where it is stored.
- Retention requirements are outlined in UO Policy IV.10.01 and in more detail in the UO Records Retention Schedule.
- Transitory or intermediary records are not subject to a specific retention period and should be deleted once they are no longer needed for business use. Examples include:
- Drafts from which a final version has been generated.
- Your copies of documents successfully uploaded to UO systems such as Canvas, Concur, or MyTrack.
- Convenience copies kept only for reference.
- Personal notes not shared or used to make decisions.
- Personal materials unrelated to UO business.
- Messages from listservs.
- Ad-hoc reports from databases, used for one-time reference.
- Substantive records document decisions, actions, or obligations and usually must be retained according to the UO Records Retention Schedule. Work with your department’s Records Steward to determine the applicable retention period. Common substantive records created and handled by faculty and instructors that have established retention periods include but are not limited to:
What to know about email, Teams, and Zoom
Emails, chats, and recordings are university records when they document UO work.
- Most routine email and chat content is transitory or intermediary, but messages or recordings that are the only documentation of a decision, action, or obligation may need to be retained.
- If a message or recording needs to be kept, work with your department’s Records Steward to move it to a more appropriate repository, such as SharePoint, a Team, or a departmental file server.
- Use your UO account and UO systems for university work, especially when communicating with students or handling sensitive information; free services such as Gmail and Proton Mail do not automatically provide privacy protections required for certain university data.
Faculty and instructors should not respond directly to records access requests from the public, or from other UO employees without a clear business need for the information.
- If you receive a request, direct the requester to the Public Records Office.
- Do not destroy records that may be responsive to the request, even if the normal retention period has been met.
- Whether a record is exempt from disclosure is determined by Oregon law, not by labels such as “confidential” or “sensitive.”
Before deleting digital files or shredding paper records confirm that these are no longer needed for current business and that any required retention period has been met by consulting with your Records Steward.
- Routinely dispose of
- Stop routine disposal if you are notified of a litigation hold, investigation, audit, or public records request.
- Use secure handling and disposal practices for records containing personally identifiable or other sensitive information.
- Do not destroy records early simply to save space. Improper destruction can create legal and institutional risk.
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