RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
Queens College has been selected as a site for implementation of the new CUNY Records Retention and Disposition Schedule, which was completed by the Office of the General Counsel and approved by the New York State Archives. The schedule specifies how long various types of college records must be kept to satisfy legal, fiscal, administrative, and academic requirements. The records management program is created in order to develop a structured and organized system of record keeping and to facilitate the disposal of unnecessary and outdated documents held by college departments.
Each department must designate an employee to serve as the coordinator for this project. The coordinator should be a full-time employee who is knowledgeable about the characteristics and use of the department’s records. Site visits will be scheduled with departmental coordinators. In advance of each site visit, the coordinator will prepare a list of the department’s records. During the site visit, the list of records will be reviewed and the CUNY retention schedule will be consulted to determine retention guidance for the records. The CUNY-specified retention periods will be discussed with the departmental coordinator to determine whether they meet the department’s needs. Based on the discussion, a departmental schedule will be drafted and distributed to interested parties for review and comment. Once the departmental schedule is approved by the department head, the department can begin discarding records with elapsed retention periods.
This website contains the CUNY Records Retention Policy, the QC Administrative Department Schedule (commonly held records), the QC Academic Department Schedule (commonly held records), the records retention schedule approval form, as well as the records management certificate of destruction form (see links to the right).
Frequently Asked Questions about Departmental Schedules
1. What is a Departmental Schedule?
2. What is the Administrative Schedule?
3. How do I read my Departmental Schedule?
4. Where do the retention periods come from?
5. What if a record I have is not in my Departmental Schedule?
6. What should I do if I do not have records listed in my Departmental Schedule?
7. What do I do with duplicate records?
8. What do I do with files that have records in them with different retention periods?
9. What do I do with records that are past their retention period?
10. Can I keep records a different amount of time than listed in the Departmental,
Administrative, or CUNY Schedules?
11. When does my “year” start?
12. What if my department is involved in a lawsuit?
13. What do I do with electronic records?
14. Where can I get more details about the CUNY Records Retention and Disposition Schedule?
For more information, contact Zhili Liang at Zhili.liang@qc.cuny.edu.
