FAQs

What Is a University Record?

University records include information, regardless of physical form or characteristics, that have been created or received by California State University, Sacramento. These records may include: correspondence, reports, studies, data, maps, drawings, photographs, email, audio and visual recordings, administrative logs or other documents whether on paper, computer (magnetic tape, disk, or hard drive), film or other media.
University records are public records and may not be destroyed, transferred to the State Records Center, or transferred to the University Archives without coordination with the University Records Management Coordinator or University Archives, respectively.
However, please note that records pertaining to ongoing or pending audits, or judicial or public disclosure proceedings must not be destroyed until the issue is resolved.

Determining the “Value” of a Record

As noted in the Chancellor’s Office website, records and information may have value in one or more of the following areas:

• Operational: Required by a campus/department to perform its primary function
• Legal: Required to be kept by law or may be needed litigation or a government investigation.
• Fiscal: Related to the financial transactions of the campus, especially those required for audit or tax purposes.
• Historical: Of long-term value to document past events. This may arise from exceptional age and/or connection with some significant historical event or person associated with the CSU.
• Vital: Critical to maintain to ensure operational continuity for the CSU after a disruption or disaster. Vital records or information may fall into any one of the above value categories.

Responsibilities & Workflow

Records Series Owners/Data Owners

Data Owners assume primary responsibility in ensuring the integrity, quality, and security of our data. Data Owners are typically designated by, and have an organizational reporting relationship to, the President or Vice Presidents.

Data Managers

Data Managers manage and support the day-to-day business processes that are used to maintain university data and are typically considered subject matter experts on specific sets of data elements. Data Managers are designated by and may or may not have an organizational reporting relationship to Data Owners.

Each University office has primary legal responsibility for the proper care and management of its records.
To meet this responsibility each office should designate a Records Authority and a Records Coordinator. The same person may fill both positions.
The Records Authority has final approval for both the disposition of records and for departmental retention schedules. The Records Coordinator administers all day-to-day transactions associated with the office's records-related functions. This can include files organization and maintenance, implementation of retention schedules, inactive records storage, and records destruction. The department Records Coordinator also acts as liaison with University Records Management Services.