75 Year Restrictions

Student Information

(FERPA refers to these as Education Records)

Retain and restrict, but only if it is the record copy and designated as a permanent record.  
Remove student papers, grades, and examinations with student names.
Remove and destroy letters of recommendation, except from faculty papers collections.

Examples

Likely Locations

  • Admission information for students accepted by and enrolled at MIT

  • Biographical information including:

    • date and place of birth

    • gender

    • nationality

    • information about race and ethnicity

    • identification photographs

  • Transcripts

  • Grades, test scores, courses taken, academic specialization and activities,
    and official communications

  • Course work, including papers and exams

  • Communications that are part of the academic process between a student / teaching staff or student / classmates

  • UROP and other internship program records

  • Students’ financial records

  • Disciplinary records

  • Letters of recommendation

  • Committee on Discipline records

  • Department records

  • UROP records

  • Faculty personal papers

  • Dean Undergraduate Education records

  • Dean Graduate School records

  • Offices with disciplinary and counseling responsibilities records

Registrar’s Office: Records privacy & access 

MIT Policies & Procedures: Section 11.3 Privacy of Student Records

Disciplinary records: MIT Committee on Discipline 

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) a.k.a. “Buckley Amendment”

 Archives record schedules: “Record” copy and permanent record schedule

Personnel Records 

Retain, but only if it is the record copy and designated as a permanent record.
Restrict names on container lists.
If not a record copy, destroy (shred).

Examples

Likely Locations

  • Tenure cases

  • Staff performance evaluations

  • Search, appointment files

  • Promotion files

  • Affirmative action

  • Salary

  • Conflict of interest forms

  • Outside professional activities forms

  • Benefits records

  • Retirement plan records

  • Human Resources records

  • Deans of Schools records

  • Office or program directors’ and heads of departments’ records

  • Provost Office records

  • Papers of faculty who served on tenure committees

  • Papers of faculty who were heads of departments

  • Correspondence series in all of the above

MIT Human Resources: Guidelines for Retaining Personnel Files

MIT Employment Policy Manual 

MIT Policies and Procedures Manual 

Archives record schedules: “Record” copy and permanent record schedule

Medical, Experiment Records

Determine what kind of record it is.

  • Is it the record copy?
  • Are there laws regarding retention?
  • What are MIT needs?

Restrict names on lists. Speak with Archivist for Collections on final decisions.

Examples

Likely Locations

  • Patient records

  • Consent forms

  • Human research applications and approvals

  • COUHES (Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects) records

  • Faculty

  • Personal papers

  • Medical Department records

  • Research project records

  • Grant records

MIT Policies & Procedures: Section 14.3 Research on Human Subjects 

COUHES (Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects) 

COUHES: HIPAA Guidance Document

Massachusetts state law (MGL ch.111, s. 70)  

U.S. law –CFR section 45 Code of Federal Regulations

Archives record schedules: “Record” copy and permanent record schedule

Donor And Gifts Records

Appraise, if permanent, restrict.
Restrict names on container lists.

Examples

Likely Locations

  • Alumni/ae donor prospects

  • Fundraising campaign records, “campaign-giving”

  • Business donors, corporate sponsors

  • Correspondence

  • Gifts

  • Endowed professorships

  • Corporation Development Committee records

  • Treasurer’s Office records

  • Vice President for Resource Development records

  • Office of Resource Development records

  • Alumni/ Alumnae Association records

  • Department records

  • Office of the President records

  • Office of the Chairman of the Corporation records

  • Office of Corporate Relations records

  • Planning Office records

 

50 Year Restrictions

MIT Corporation Records

Is it the record copy?

  • If record copy, mark for restrictions, especially when within another collection.

  • If not, speak with Associate Head for Collections on retaining or not.

Examples

Likely Locations

  • Presidential search committee records

  • Fundraising records

  • Visiting committee records

  • Minutes of meetings

  • High level planning records

  • Standing committees of the Corporation

    • Executive

    • Membership

    • Investment

    • Development

  • Annual committees

    • Auditing

    • Corporation Joint Committee on Institute-Wide Affairs (CJAC)

  • Presidential search committees

  • Visiting committees

  • Chairman of the Corporation

  • Vice-President and Secretary of the Corporation

  • President

  • Treasurer

  • Executive Vice President

  • Provost

  • Department and units’ visiting committee records

It Depends!

Legal Records

Depending on the type of legal record, restriction times may vary.

Open

  • Most court records (briefs, transcripts, exhibits, opinions, etc.) If the document was published in court, it’s probably open, but keep an eye out for the following:

    • records sealed by the court (these will usually have a stamp that says "sealed" or "confidential")

    • settlement negotiations

    • exhibits that reveal personal information (e.g. the name of a client who was represented anonymously)

  • Media coverage about a case (press releases, news clippings)

20 Year Restriction: Work Product Materials

  • Drafts of briefs or other court documents

  • Correspondence and memoranda, e.g. with cooperating attorneys discussing strategy or other issues related to the case (just make sure it does not contain private information from the client)

  • Other materials prepared for a case, such as notes on related cases, research papers/memos, etc.

75 Year Restriction: Attorney-Client Privilege Materials

  • Correspondence and other methods of information-sharing with the client, unless it is routine or explicitly non-confidential
  • Correspondence between cooperating attorneys if it includes private information from/about the client
  • Correspondence with the court or with attorneys on the opposite side of the case that recounts information from the client not revealed in court or that discusses settlement

 

Examples

Likely Locations

  • Environmental and Health Safety (EHS) records

  • Court cases

  • Gifts

  • Property records

  • Corporate relations files

  • Office of Insurance and Legal Affairs records

  • Safety Office records

  • Treasurer's Office records

  • Real Estate Office records

  • Industrial Liaison Office records

  • Office of Corporate Relations records

 

Law firms used by MIT include Palmer and Dodge and Herrick and Smith. Correspondence with these firms is likely to be restricted.

MIT. Policies and Procedures Manual