CMU Records Retention Schedule

The Records Retention Schedule covers general records common to most offices at Central Michigan University. Certain departments and units are designated as “Individual Responsible Operating Units” and are listed in the Records Retention Schedule. Individual Responsible Operating Units are responsible for establishing and maintaining appropriate records management practices. Departments and units that are not designated as Individual Responsible Operating Units for a given record are expected to retain copies of records only so long as the records are useful to carrying out the operations of the department. Disposal of those copies can be undertaken at the discretion of the department holding them.

Specific Individual Responsible Operating Units may have unique records retention requirements for a variety of reasons, including the need to conform to explicit Federal or State regulations. In such cases, a custom records retention schedule will take precedence over this general schedule. Employees are urged to consult the Records Management Team with questions or for clarification.

Each unit’s administrator or a designee must do the following:

Implement the unit’s and/or office’s records management practices.
Ensure that records management practices are consistent with this policy.
Educate staff within the administrative unit to understand sound records management practices.
Preserve inactive records of legal, fiscal, administrative, or historical value. These records should be transferred to the University Archives.
Ensure that access to confidential files is restricted. Long-term restrictions on access to selected archival records should be negotiated at the time of their transfer to the University Archives.
Destroy inactive records that have no archival value upon expiration of the applicable retention period.

Note: An official record can be in paper or digital form at the discretion of the Individual Responsible Operating Unit.