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Records Management - Email

Updated 

Summary

For faculty and staff members, email and history-on chat messaging are just as much a record as any paper record. Regardless of platform, these records must be retained and destroyed in accordance with university policy, Virginia state law and retention periods set by Library of Virginia guidelines. Email and history-on chat messages typically fall under the "Correspondence" record series, but not always. 

Environment

University email for students, faculty and staff members.

Solution

TL;DR

 

  • Archive as needed when emails and history-on chat messages are less than 3 years old.
  • Report those older than 3 years on an RM-3 and delete after receiving Records Management Office signed approval.

Requirements

 

  • Prior to destruction of official records, a record destruction request (RM-3) must be submitted to and approved by the Records Management Office.
  • Records cannot be destroyed if there is an ongoing or pending audit, investigation, litigation, FERPA or FOIA request. 
  • Records cannot be destroyed until those retention requirements have been met if there are superseding authorities that dictate retention and recordkeeping practices e.g. accreditation, contract terms.
  • Convenience copies are not to be reported on the RM-3 and can be purged at any time if there are no holds, but should not outlive the official record.

Responsibilities

 

Students

  • While Library of Virginia retention periods are not required for students, purging emails that are redundant, outdated, and trivial (ROT) is encouraged.
  • Transfer student emails to your personal email account prior to graduation.
  • If you have worked at the university, see responsibilities for Active and Separating Employees.

 

Supervisors

  • During onboarding, ensure new direct reports are aware of university recordkeeping policy, department-specific procedures and superseding regulations if any.
  • Prior to separation, ensure separating employees have forwarded or exported all noteworthy business email records to you as their supervisor and/or the appropriate university colleagues. NOTE: Email accounts will not be transferred to supervisors.

 

Separating Faculty and Employees

  • Prior to separation, transfer all noteworthy business emails and records to your supervisor and/or the appropriate university colleagues. 
  • Transfer student emails to your personal email account. NOTE: Access to the work email account will not be granted after separation.

 

Active Faculty and Employees

  • Use university-approved correspondence platforms for university business (“work email”), academic coursework and student research (“student email”).  For a list of applications approved, visit the Data Management System.
  • Avoid correspondence platforms that are prohibited or unapproved for university business such as calling, emailing and SMS/MMS text-messaging from personal accounts.
  • Apply labels to separate work emails from student emails.
  • Review Records Ownership to determine the appropriate record series and retention period. If you are uncertain about classification, please contact your department records coordinator or the Records Management Office.
  • Export emailed non-correspondence records (e.g. completed forms, invoices, reports) to a long-term storage repository such as Google Drive, ImageNow or other university systems. For a list of applications approved, visit the Data Management System.
  • Retain university business messages no later than the required retention periods. General rule for faculty and staff email is 3 years or older.
  • Archive messages are less than 3 years old as needed.
  • Report messages more than 3 years old for approval. See Destruction Eligibility section.
    For example in Google, this search criteria can be used as of 2025: after:2012/1/1 before:2022/1/1 
  • Receive Records Officer RM-3 approval prior to deletion.
  • With approval, complete the deletion and empty the email Trash.

VCU Health System IT

  • Uses email retention tools and eDiscovery services for School of Medicine faculty and staff accounts.

 

VCU Technology Services

  • Uses email retention tools and e-discovery services (Vault) for all faculty and staff Google Workspace accounts excluding School of Medicine.
  • Retains all Google emails for e-discovery that are less than 3 years old excluding deleted drafts. Vault treats undeleted draft messages just like every other message. If a draft is deleted without being sent, it is expunged 30 days later regardless of retention policies or holds.
  • Preserves business emails with permanent retention requirements as well as those subject to active record holds for FOIA requests, investigations and litigation.
  • Annually purges and centrally reports RM-3 for separated Google Workspace accounts that have passed the 3-year max retention period. This includes email, history-on chat message, Drive, etc.

Destruction Eligibility

 

Estimating Volume

 

  • As an estimate, please use 150 KB as the average file size per email. For example:
    • 100 = 15 MB
    • 250 = 37.5 MB
    • 1,000 = 150 MB
    • 5,000 = 750 MB
    • 10,000 = 1.5 GB

 

 

Determining Timeframes

 

  • GS-101 012017: Correspondence/Subject Files: Department or Division Heads - Other Correspondence
    This series consists of incoming and outgoing letters, memoranda, faxes, notes and their attachments, not listed on an agency specific schedule, in any physical format including, but not limited to, paper and e-mail.
    Retention: Retain 3 year(s) after end of calendar year
    Disposition: Non-confidential Destruction

 

  • GS-101 012018: Correspondence/Subject Files: Other Officials - Other Correspondence
    This series consists of incoming and outgoing letters, memoranda, faxes, notes and their attachments, not listed on an agency specific schedule, in any physical format including, but not limited to, paper and e-mail.
    Retention: Retain 2 year(s) after end of calendar year
    Disposition: Non-confidential Destruction

 

  • GS-101 012016: Correspondence/Subject Files: Agency Heads (VCU Technology Services and VCU Health System IT only)

This series consists of incoming and outgoing letters, memoranda, faxes, notes and their attachments, in any physical format including, but not limited to, paper and e-mail. Also refer to record series 012019, "correspondence Files - Routine, Administrative."

Retention: Permanent

Disposition: Permanent, Archives

 

  • GS-101 100557: Correspondence/Subject Files: Boards Mandated by Code of Virginia or Virginia Administrative Code - Chairpersons (VCU Technology Services and VCU Health System IT only)

This series consists of incoming and outgoing letters, memorandum, faxes, notes and their attachments, in any physical format including, but not limited to, paper and e-mail.

Retention: Permanent

Disposition: Permanent, Archives

 

Source: See the full list of record series title and retention periods in the VCU Record Ownership resource at https://go.vcu.edu/records-ownership

 

Tips and Tricks

 

Search Strings

  • By date range
    • after:2012/1/1 before:2022/1/1 
  • Calendar invites
    •  "*.ics" AND has:attachment
  • Unread not from VCU
    • Label:unread -from:(@vcu.edu OR @ vcuhealth.org)

 

Labeling

Emails should be managed according to established filing schemes just like paper records. Logical folder hierarchies and appropriate naming conventions for emails should be established and used consistently. Creating labels and folders based on record series titles found on the records retention and disposition schedules will assist with retrieval and disposal. Departmental file plans and indexing should be documented and reference university policies including superseding authorities (if any) and procedures that are widely disseminated along with training that is scheduled on a regular basis.  See record series title in VCU Record Ownership resource at https://go.vcu.edu/records-ownership

Recommended Examples

  • Personal-Non-Work - For employees who have taken or are taking VCU classes, it is important to keep your academic email separate from your employee email. Employee emails may be subject to record requests such as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), while academic records are protected by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
    • For academic emails, include the Year and Month of project start,
      e.g. Coursework\Semester YYYY
      e.g. Sponsored-Research\Project YYYY
      e.g. Internship\Job Title YYYY
      e.g. Work-study\Job Title YYYY
  • University Business - 
    • Approvals\Event Name YYYYMM
    • Course-Related\CourseName\Semester YYYY
    • Projects\Project Name YYYY
    • Sponsored-Research\Project Name YYYY
    • Vendors\Provider Name

 

Need further assistance? Please submit an IT ticket.

 



Additional Information

References

 

Related Documents

 

 

Keywords: email records records-management retention destruction