1. Brad Houston, University Records Officer November 15, 2012

2.  Created whenever you interact with students  Gradebooks  Student Coursework  Email Correspondence  Retained for grade appeals, audits  Privacy laws and concerns: dictates disclosure

3.  Introduce participants to relevant policies and schedules for student records  Discuss retention and privacy requirements under Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)  Focus on electronic records and requirements for storing and producing digital files  PAWS  D2L

4. Procedures, retention, best practices

5.  Recorded information, in any format, that allows an office to conduct business  Value determined by content  Four types of record value:  Administrative  Legal  Fiscal  Historical

6.  Personal materials  Working notes and drafts  Once a draft is shared with colleagues, it becomes a “record”  Envelopes and routing slips  Duplicate copies  Includes vast majority of “cc” email

7.  Any Record created in the course of dealing with students or their information  Vital ▪ Transcripts, accounts, enrollment lists  Administrative ▪ Transcripts, Add/Drop forms, etc.  Academic ▪ Grades, Coursework, Exams, etc.  Advising ▪ Case files, disciplinary files, email or written correspondence

8.  Essential records covering student’s entire career  Most of these records either permanent, or very long-term temporary  Key example: Student Transcripts, 75-year retention  Student Accreditation records?  Copies are NOT essential and may usually be destroyed when no longer needed

9.  Records created for day-to-day administrative tracking of students  School/Department offices most likely to have these records  Generally high administrative value, little to n0 long-term value

10.  Credit/no-credit approvals: 1 year after submitted  Add/Drop Records: 1 year after submitted  Entrance exams/placement tests: 5 years for enrolled students, 2 years for non-enrolled  Audit authorizations: 1 year after submitted

11.  Records created over course of academic course  Usually held by individual instructors  Very high administrative value; almost no long-term value

12.  Academic and Grade Appeals!  UWM Select Policies S-28 and S-29  Students have up to one year to appeal grades  Records kept through ALL levels of appeals  Academic Records must show:  No error made in grade calculation  Grade conforms to announced grading policy  Work done by students removing incomplete  Consistent grade calculation for new incompletes

13.  Grade Books: 1 year after grades assigned  Student Coursework: 1 year after grades assigned  Usually final exams the only example of these materials that are retained  Copies of papers, midterms, etc. fall under this  Course Syllabi: 2 years after semester ends and transfer to archives  Why? Proof of grading policy consistency

14.  Email correspondence with students IS a record (UWCOMM001)  If you discuss grading policy/rationale with students, that correspondence CAN be used in appeal or litigation  If in doubt, discuss grades only in person

15.  Records relating to student academic career, but not necessarily academic in nature  Often copies of vital or administrative student records  Usually held by department/office; may be held by Dean’s Office or Student Life  Most inconsistently scheduled of the main categories

16.  Honors College Student Files: 5 years after creation  Academic dishonesty records: 5 years after close of case (Dean of Students)  CIE International Student Files: 2 years after closed  See also UWSA General Schedule: http://www.wisconsin.edu/gc-off/records/schedules/GRS.Academic.Advising.pdf http://www.wisconsin.edu/gc-off/records/schedules/GRS.Academic.Advising.pdf  The brief version: 3 years for UG+Grad, 8 for certificates, 2 for prospective

17.  Determine any statutory requirements for retaining records  Determine administrative/reference use beyond statutory requirements  Contact UWM Records Management to create records schedule  Usually about a 3 month lag between submission and approval by state Public Records Board

18. Disclosure rules for Student Records

19.  Students have right to view educational records  Educational records are only accessible to student  Student may authorize disclosure  Directory Information may be made available  Exception: if a student has opted-out  Certain other exceptions exist

20.  All records pertaining to students maintained at UWM  Presumption of confidentiality  Major exceptions:  Instructor personal/sole possession notes  Employment Records  Campus Security Records  Alumni records

21.  Defined as information publicly available:  Name, Address, Contact Info  Year in school, major, enrollment status  Participation in activities  Degrees, graduation date, awards received  Students may choose to opt out of directory information release  Contact Enrollment Services  Campus Directory?

22.  Individual Students  UWM Employees with “Genuine Educational Interest”  Exempted classes  Financial Aid Providers  Other educational institutions (for transfers, etc.)  Specifically exempted officials (FERPA Manual)  Accrediting groups/student study groups

23.  Students must provide WRITTEN consent (with signature), including:  Specification of records to be released  Identify to whom records may be released  Indication of purpose of release  Provide requested records within 45 days  No consent needed if records are subpoenaed or requested via public records request  But contact Records Custodian first to determine validity of subpoena

24.  Keep a log of all disclosures of FERPA- protected information  Exceptions: access by student or student- permitted party, directory info disclosure  Keep a log of notifications to students of disclosure  Maintain letters of consent for AT LEAST six years after student graduates/leaves UWM

25.  Release FERPA-protected information to parents  Exception: if student is under 18  Post test or course grades using social security numbers  Provide records to UWM staff without “legitimate educational interest”

26.  Yes! But make sure first:  You have the student’s permission  You have redacted any identifying information from copies displayed or distributed

27.  Do not disclose student information if you have ANY doubt re: permissions  Contact Legal Affairs for guidance  Advise requestor to direct request to Public Records Custodian  Current Legal Affairs stance: presume ALL student information is private  Why? Directory Info “Opt Outs”

28. Wisconsin Administrative Rule 12, D2L, PAWS

29.  Electronic documents are records too, and subject to public records request!  Records in Content Management Systems (e.g. D2L or PAWS) may be used as evidence in grade appeals/grievances  PAWS/D2L issue: what constitutes the “record” in these databases?

30. D2L COURSE SITE  Components that remain the same across iterations of the course  Non-student specific  Built into the site structure  Usually not used for documentation D2L COURSE MATERIALS  Components that change across iterations of the course  Example: grade information  Usually student-specific  Content created for course  Example: Discussion Forum Threads  Main source of course documentation

31.  “Examinations, coursework, assignments, etc. as retained by academic departments to serve as source documents for submitted official grades.”  Retention time: 6 months after grades submitted  n.b. If D2L records are ONLY copy of grade records, save for 1 year after submission instead ▪ Export, export, export!

32.  Remember to go in and remove relevant documents/records once retention expires  Course data that “hangs around” could be subject to discovery  UW System has established annual cleanup cycle for all course sites  Courses after certain retention period deleted yearly  If you do want to save something, make local copies

33.  In general, records created through PAWS are responsibility of Enrollment Services  Access to student records subject to same FERPA privacy/disclosure requirements  If you submit grades through PAWS, retain your own copy for record-keeping purposes

34.  Puts forth criteria for maintaining electronic records  Mandates design and use of information systems to support e-records  Does NOT require departments to maintain records electronically  DOES apply to records already being maintained electronically exclusively

35.  Electronic records must be:  Accurate: reflects the original record  Accessible: Record can be retrieved  Authentic: can be substantiated as accurate  Reliable: produces the original record every time  Legible: letters and numbers are identifiable  Readable: Groups of letters recognized as words  All of these properties must be maintained throughout a record’s active life

36.  Online (within D2L or PAWS system)  Convenient, but may involve access restrictions  Off-line (Print out)  Most reliable, but most unwieldy  Near-line (PantherFile or Dept. LAN)  Reliable, moderately accessible  Don’ t rely on one hard drive for this

37.  “Cloud computing” lets you store and access records remotely  Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.  UWM does not have contracts with any of these services  Security, Access not guaranteed  Be aware of FERPA concerns

38. Summary and resources

39.  Retain most student academic records for at minimum 1 year  Retain administrative or advising student records according to schedules  Do not disclose student records outside of specific exceptions  Prepare to preserve or purge electronic records, as appropriate

40.  UWM FERPA Guide  https://www4.uwm.edu/current_students/records_grades/ ferpa_facstaff.cfm https://www4.uwm.edu/current_students/records_grades/ ferpa_facstaff.cfm  UWM Select Policy 29: Grade Records and Retention  http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/acad%2Badmin_policies/S29. htm  UWSA General Records Schedule for Academic Records  http://www.uwsa.edu/gc- off/records/schedules/studentrecsboilerplateUWROC.pdf

41.  UWM General Records Schedules  http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/arch/recordsmgt/ common.cfm http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/arch/recordsmgt/ common.cfm  Records Management Guidelines  http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/arch/recordsmgt/ guidelines.cfm http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/arch/recordsmgt/ guidelines.cfm  D2L Cleanup Blog  http://d2lcleanup.blogspot.com/ http://d2lcleanup.blogspot.com/

42.  This presentation available online:  http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/recordsmgt/legal.ppt http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/recordsmgt/legal.ppt  Or, contact UWM Records Management:  houstobn@uwm.edu (Brad Houston) houstobn@uwm.edu  414-229-6979  http://www.records.uwm.edu http://www.records.uwm.edu