Collection Guidelines for Academic Departments

These guidelines have been established to help academic departments manage their record keeping. They are recommendations based on research and discussion with previous academic chairs and the Office of the Provost.

Permanent: Transfer to Archives every 5 years.

  1. Department publications, like newsletters. Also brochures, mailings, posters and other ephemera pertaining to events sponsored by the department. Inactive course syllabi.
  2. Correspondence pertaining to major events in the history of the department.
  3. Photographs, slides, films, audio or video tapes. (Please document audio-visual materials. If possible, please include the names of events and persons involved, title of the work, names of the creators, location, and date).
  4. Faculty authored monographs, reprints, or off-prints; honors & master theses send to Sandy Morse, Shain Library, for cataloguing.

Not Permanent:

  1. Annual Reports. (Destroy after 5 years; the Archives collects these from the President's office).
  2. Budgets & Expenditures. (Destroy after 5 years. Destroy invoices & receipts after 1 or 2 years. The general ledger is archived by the Accounting Office.)
  3. Department Minutes. (Destroy after 5 years).
  4. Faculty Files. (Destroy after faculty member resigns, retires or dies. Interesting information may be passed along to the Office of College Relations/Publications or the Provost's Office for permanent retention.)
  5. Correspondence with alumni. (Forward significant letters to the Alumni Association for inclusion in the Alumni biographical files.)
  6. Search Files. (Retain all candidates files 2 years; thereafter, weed back to finalists and retain for 3 more years; then destroy.)
  7. Student Course Evaluations. (For tenure and promotion reviews, retain 12 years.)
  8. Subject files pertaining to the working activities of the department. (Weed annually.)
Note: There may be reason to include other materials created by your department in the permanent collection of the Archives. Consider their value and inform the College Archivist at x2686.

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