Email Retention Guidelines
University email that is created in "connection with the transaction of public business" is considered "property of the people" according to North Carolina Public Records Law. Records are to be maintained and disposed of according to state approved records retention and disposition schedules.
The following guidelines [1] are offered to help make decisions about what to delete, maintain, or print out. If you have any questions, contact the Records Management Office through 6-TECH (336-256-8324) or by email: 6-tech@uncg.edu.
Any records that are subject to audit or for any legal proceedings must be retained until released from such audits or official proceedings.
Email to be deleted
- Junk mail
- Personal messages
- Duplicate copies
- Confirmation of appointments
- Records with short-term value, when reference value has ended. For a definition of a record with short-term value, please visit: Guidelines for Public Records - North Carolina Government Records Branch
- Records that are past their scheduled retention time
Email to be maintained
The purpose of retaining records has to do with the value of a record. There are administrative, fiscal, legal, and historical reasons for maintaining records for periods of time.
First, ask if the information contained in the email only exists in email form. If a document is being transmitted by email, the creating party would be responsible for maintaining the record according to state approved retention schedules. Unless comments are added, the copy would be considered a reference copy with and the original considered the record.
Then, before deleting or destroying any document (email), ask these three questions:
- Could this document help make it clear how a business decision was made?
- Could this document help me support or justify my actions?
- Could this document form part of a financial, legal, or business audit trail, claim, or obligation?
This would include documents that issue policy, state decisions, outline procedures, show action, or give guidance.
A YES or MAYBE to any of the three questions above indicates that the document most likely is to be retained and disposed of according to either a departmental program schedule or the UNC Records Retention and Disposition Schedule (PDF: requires a reader such as Adobe Reader).
Email to be printed
- Any document with a retention schedule of three years or more
- Any document that is scheduled to go to the Archives