Disposition of University Records

As a state agency the university is required to request permission from the sate to destroy any agency record. Statutorial definition of a Record: "Any book, paper, map, film, recording or other material or any copy thereof, regardless of physical format or characteristic; created or received by an agency or its officers or employees in connection with the transaction of official business; and retained by that agency or its successor as evidence of its activities or functions."

Reasons for this include:

• In order to document the history, decisions, actions, and spending of agencies;
• As evidence for audit;
• To protect the interests of an agency, its employees, and its patrons;
• In case of litigation;

The Director of Human Resources is the Records Management Coordinator for SWOSU. Before destroying any agency record one must send a memo to this office describing what kind of record it is, inclusive date(s) of the record(s), how many cubic feet you have to destroy, and if the record in question is an original or copy. The request to dispose of records will then be submitted in the proper form to the Oklahoma Department of Libraries Records Management Division for their approval/denial of our request. Requester will be notified of their decision as soon as the request is returned to the university.