General Administrative, Program and Subject Files

Function

Teaching and Academic Programs

PIB

RRSDA Number

1999-005

Department

All University 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. 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.

Retention periods

Records	Active Retention	Semi-Active Retention	Total retention	Final disposition
All departments holding these records	CY + 2 years	5 years	CY + 7 years	Selective Retention by Archives

Active = Active Retention Period, Keep in Office; Semi-Active = Semi-Active Retention period, transfer to University Records Centre; CY = Current calendar year; CFY = Current fiscal year; CS = Current semester; S/O = Superseded or obsolete; OPR = Office of Primary Responsibility; Non-OPR = All other departments

Authorities

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

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RSBC 1996, c. 165)
SFU Senate Guidelines for External Review of Academic Units
SFU Policy R 40.01, Centres and Institutes

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); and departmental copies of records sent to administrative departments which are responsible for keeping the official university record (e.g. Financial Services, Human Resources).

Related RRSDAS

Status

RRSDA is in force

Approval Date

11 Jan 2001

Last Revised Date

7 Feb 2014

Archives and Records Management