Record Destruction

Each department is responsible to retain and destroy its records according to their Department Retention Schedule and the BYU General Retention Schedule. We can help!

What records can be destroyed?

A record becomes ELIGIBLE for destruction when:
- Retention has been met
- The department no longer needs it, and
- The department is not on Litigation Hold.

When all three conditions have been met, the record should be destroyed. Destroying eligible records mitigates risk and reduces storage cost.

Physical records stored in the University Records Center are destroyed by University Records & Information Management (URIM) when retention has been met and no exceptions are found on the eligible for destruction report. Destructions are witnessed by URIM, and a destruction certificate is maintained by URIM. Departments may destroy eligible records by contacting BYU Recycling for a secure shred bin, or by coordinating with them directly.

Eligible electronic records should be deleted when retention has been met. Box is available for managing the retention and deletion of electronic records.

Which records should be suspended from destruction?

- The Office of the General Council has reached out to your department and asked you not to dispose of any records of a specific nature, which is included in the list boxes eligible to be destroyed.
- The box(s) was mis-categorized and a new retention category needs to be identified that better reflects the contents of the box.
- A situation has occurred in your department that requires the ongoing use of the contents of the box.

What about Non-records?

Non-records – information not subject to the retention schedule – may be destroyed when no longer needed by the department.
Examples of non-records include:

Duplicate copies of records created or maintained by BYU Administration
Referential documents
Drafts
Emails that do not contain business decisions, authorizations, or transactions.