Records Retention Schedules
All public records held by Washington's state institutions must be retained according to records retention schedules approved by the State Records Committee, as required by RCW 40.14. Retention schedules apply to all public records, regardless of format. The retention schedules below were approved by the Committee on June 3, 2020, and supersede all previous versions.
Western Washington University presently uses several types of retention schedules. If you are unsure about which one applies to you, please contact University Records Management, x6654.
- University General Records Retention Schedule ("General Schedule"). This schedule covers most common business records that are created and maintained across the institution. The schedule is organized according to different categories of records. There are two ways to access this schedule:
- College and Academic Department Records Retention Schedule. This schedule covers common records that are created and maintained by colleges and academic departments and programs. This schedule also includes relevant titles from the University General Schedule. The schedule is organized according to different categories of records. There are two ways to access this schedule:
- Departmental/Office File Plans File plans govern records that are unique to individual program units. Presently, file plans are not available online, but they are freely and readily available upon request. Please contact Records Management for copies.
For questions, contact Records Management.
How to implement and use retention schedules
For more detailed information about implementing retention schedules at WWU, please see our guide Implementing Records Retention Schedules. For more information about reading and applying retention schedules, please see our page Using the University General Records Retention Schedule.