Everyone within an institution of higher education has a responsibility to access, use, and disclose organizational information in a responsible manner, compliant with institutional policy and legal statutes. This responsibility extends to other parties granted access to institutional information. Improper maintenance, disposal, or release of institutional administrative information exposes the organization to significant risk. A comprehensive information management program will improve the information-handling and administrative processes, the security of private information, and the management of institutional records and will facilitate the preservation of the institutional memory. Explore from three different institutional perspectives the interplay of a variety of information management topics including building support and buy-in, developing records retention and disposition schedules, managing electronic records, effectively administering e-discovery and requests for release ......
Make sure you’re in compliance with new rules that include electronic communication in the legal discovery process.
This is an overview of a recent court decision that points out the weight given to the process of authenticating electronic evidence in legal matters. A link to the court decision is included.
Districts face heavy summer workload to comply with new federal regulations.
On the newly posted ESI and E-Discovery resource page, resources regarding the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning the discovery portion of the litigation process are now available. Although discovery has included electronic materials for some time, the amendments specifically recognize electronically stored information (ESI) and E-Discovery, the process by which ESI is exchanged during the early stages of litigation. The resources available were provided by colleges, universities, and other parties interested in helping institutions of higher education formulate their own policies to handle ESI.
What's past is prologue. As we look ahead to the policy questions facing the Internet today and tomorrow, it's useful to recall what we've seen over the past 12 months, and that's what we'll do during this session.
The author discusses the recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), which regulates the discovery of electronically stored information (ESI).
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended on December 1, 2006, to include new provisions on the discovery of electronically stored information (ESI). After providing a summary of these rules, this session will focus on steps that universities and colleges can take to manage ESI, including reasonable accessibility rules, privilege and waiver considerations, the duty to preserve electronic evidence, litigation holds, and the elements of an ESI retention and destruction program.
The purpose of these University of Massachusetts guidelines are to;a. Outline the University's requirements for its Records Management & Retention Program including records creation, maintenance, organization, use, security, disposal, and archive.b. Define criteria for the identification of vital records and the requirements for the maintenance, security and handling of vital records.c. Provide for schedules of records retention and disposition.d. Outline criteria for the conversion of retained or archival records to a different medium (e.g., paper to fiche or scanned documents).
Need to preserve selected records in accordance with your retention schedule, remove "old" e-mail from fast storage media, or keep a tamper-proof copy of all e-mail for legal compliance? How do you implement a workable solution that balances risks, is underpinned by policy, and responds to legal, user, and technical pressures?
The author suggests that schools may be purposely not retaining IP logging data on students to protect them from copyright infringement lawsuits.
The Adams State College Data Handling and Storage Policy states that Institutional data is considered essential, and its quality and security must be ensured to comply with legal, regulatory, and administrative requirements. Authorization to access institutional data varies according to its sensitivity (the need for care or caution in handling). This administrative policy sets forth the college's standards with regard to the handling of sensitive institutional data.
When these storage and media devices become obsolete or are no longer needed the sensitive or private data must be effectively removed from the storage media or be destroyed before the devices are recycled, reused, disposed of, or discarded. The removal process is variously called data removal, data sanitization, data destruction, or similar terms. In this guideline data sanitization will be used for compatibility with recent federal guidelines.
EDUCAUSE will co-sponsor an Information Technology Association of America event, “Defining the Acceptable Balance: A Reasoned Approach to Data Retention,” on September 27, 2006, inWashington, D.C. This seminar will assemble subject matter experts from Congress, law enforcement agencies, the privacy community, and high tech companies to answer such questions as: What data needs to be collected? How long should data be stored? How can data searches be conducted in a manner that does not risk wholesale sacrifice of customer privacy? Learn more about the event and register.
College and university administrators are interested in records management because records document the activities of the institution and are essential in making informed decisions and maintaining accountability. The discipline of records management consists of principles and practices designed to efficiently manage and control records, from creation to final disposition. Any electronic records management solution or strategy includes management and technology components. This Research Bulletin provides an overview of the major issues and challenges associated with managing electronic records and examines emerging strategies for implementing electronic records management programs.