University Records Retention
1. PURPOSE
Each Brigham Young University–Hawaii ("BYU–Hawaii" or "university") department has many kinds of records with various rules around retention. This policy gives guidance to departments for managing these records.
2. POLICY
Records refer to information in any format, whether paper or electronic, that is created or received by university personnel or third-parties and is necessary to conduct university business, whether related to operations, research, legal, regulatory, or other similar purposes.
Enterprise Information Systems (EIS), which is the campus department that prepares the University’s General Retention Schedule (GRS) maintains university records submitted in paper or electronically by campus departments. University Archives is a separate campus department responsible for maintaining, for research purposes, those university records that have historical and continuing value and that are not highly confidential. (See University Archives policy)
3. IMPLEMENTATION
3.1 Information and Records Retention, Archival, and Disposal
The GRS is a comprehensive list of multiple records categories that identifies university record types and the time period those records must be retained to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, or for business or historic needs.
3.2 Retention
Each university employee is responsible to retain records according to the GRS as it relates to his or her area of control. Records must be retained by the department in which the record originated. Each university employee should notify EIS if a category of university records is missing from or not appropriately listed in the GRS.
3.3 Access
All records containing privileged, confidential, legally protected, or proprietary information must be securely maintained to prevent unauthorized access (e.g., employment records, health records, student records, financial records, counseling records, legal records).
3.4 Disposal
Records of the university should be disposed of in an appropriate manner according to the GRS, either by the department or by EIS.
3.5 Archival
Records of historical and continuing value that are not classified as highly confidential are transferred to University Archives to be available for research according to the University Archives policy and related procedures.3.6 Confidentiality
All university records are classified as confidential unless otherwise designated by the department in which the record originated. Departments may designate records as highly confidential. If designated as highly confidential, a record may not be transferred to University Archives and may not be disclosed—except to the responsible vice president, the office of the president, and the Office of the General Counsel—unless disclosure is required by law.3.7 Litigation Holds
A litigation hold is a directive from the Office of the General Counsel to suspend the application of this policy for the destruction or alteration of information that is considered relevant to pending, threatened, or imminent litigation or government investigation. All personnel should comply with litigation holds received from the Office of the General Counsel.3.8 Exclusions
Unless subject to a litigation hold, the following information is specifically excluded from this policy:
- Books, periodicals, catalogs, and other publications or library materials acquired solely for reference purposes, including memorabilia acquired for exhibition
- Unused copies of form letters
- Unsolicited brochures, flyers, advertisements, or mass mailings or e-mail messages
- Information unrelated to university business
- Personal information of university employees