SFU Records Retention Schedule and Disposal Authority (RRSDA)
General Administrative, Program and Subject Files

Description | PIB | Authorities | Retentional rational | Rentention and filing guidelines | Status

RRSDA number

1999-005

Record series

General Administrative, Program and Subject Files

Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR)

All University Departments (General Records Series)

Retention periods

Records Active retention (in office) Semi-active (records centre) Total retention Final disposition
All departments holding these records: CY file closed + 2 years 5 years CY file closed + 7 years Selective Retention by Archives

CY = Current calendar year; CFY = Current fiscal year; CS = Current semester; S/O = Superseded or obsolete; OPR = Office of Primary Responsibility; Non-OPR = All other departments.

Description, purpose and use of records

Records made or received and used by faculties and deans' offices, academic departments and schools, research centres and institutes, and non-academic administrative departments in support of their programs, functions, activities and operations. This is a default schedule covering all university departmental records not scheduled under a more specific RRSDA.

Records may include correspondence and memoranda, statistics, reports and working papers, forms, mailing lists, policies and procedures, budgets, financial reports and transaction records, work orders, manuals, proposals, brochures and publications.

Academic departments have similar functions and therefore their general office files are similar. Non-academic administrative departments often have unique functions and records. In some cases their records have already been scheduled separately and eventually all administrative departments will have separate schedules. In the interim, this RRSDA functions as the default schedule.

Before using this schedule, departments should consult their own departmental RRSDAs and the university-wide General RRSDAs to determine whether or not a more specific RRSDA applies.

See also:

Authorities

These records are created, used, retained and managed in accordance with the following authorities:

Retention rationale

Total retention period is based on the normal cycle for external reviews of academic departments, i.e. once every 7 years. This retention period will also ensure that the records created during a Dean's tenure (typically appointed for 5-year terms) will continue to be under the control of the office and available to his or her successor. Some non-academic, administrative departments may have their own general office file scheduled under a separate RRSDA, but in the absence of this, the present schedule applies.

Retention and filing guidelines

The Archives and Records Management has developed a Model File Classification Plan that departments can adapt to their own purposes. Please see the website under Directory of University Records (DUR).

Departments should be aware that the following records have been appraised as non-archival and can be destroyed at the end of the active retention period (CY + 2) before sending other departmental files to the URC:

Departmental copies of Board of Governors and Senate records (e.g. Senate Summaries). Departmental copies of general-circulation memoranda or reports issued by other university departments (e.g. VP Academic, Dean, Facilities Management). Departmental copies of records sent to administrative departments which are responsible for keeping the official university record (e.g. Financial Services, Human Resources).

Status

RRSDA is in force.

Approved by the University Archivist: 11 Jan 2001

Last revised: 7 February. 2014

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