Student Document Keeping

What is Student Document Keeping?
Describes College and department responsibilities for the retention of, access to, and disposal of student records .
1. Transcripts
2. Certification of Enrollment and Degrees
3. Department Admission Files
4. Department Student Files

Student Document Keeping Challenges
Records managers are on the front lines of managing risk for their organizations—and they’ve got their work cut out for them.
Classification refers to the designation of data as open or restricted, as an official record with an assigned retention period or as a copy or duplicate that will be disposed of after a short reference period. Classification of data occurs immediately following its creation and becomes the first step in managing the data through its useful life.
The maintenance of data is the second module in the lifecycle model. This module is key to the use and usefulness of data in that controls are applied to the data to ensure its authenticity and reliability over time. Strict controls are applied to annotation of the data and migration planning lays out how software upgrades and changes might impact the trustworthiness of the information.
The transformation of the modern government office from a largely paper environment to an electronic environment presents a variety of problems and concerns for records management. Where once business was conducted via paper, today e-mail, Web portals, databases, and other electronic applications are the means by which government transacts business.

Student Document Keeping Attempts
Traditionally, paper records were managed long after creation, once they were physically filed into agency filing systems and began to take up valuable office space. This management typically consisted of transferring the records offsite to a records center facility or warehouse dumping ground where they were forgotten. With electronic records, management must be included in system planning and implementation and must take place immediately upon creation as the agency classifies the information for further use. This classification is vital for the application of corresponding electronic controls to ensure the effective maintenance and disposition of the record.

Student Document Keeping Solutions
There are four technology solutions that provide the level of protection needed to guard against alteration of the record over time. • Secure Client-Server Architecture: This technique uses the structure of the agency’s information systems to permit read-only access to documents. In a client-server architecture, a user addresses queries to a database or retrieval requests for specific electronic documents from the desktop; queries are then transmitted to a server, which passes the request to the storage repository. The system then retrieves and processes the instructions and sends the data back to the user. In a . • Cyclical Redundancy Checksum: Used by the telecommunications profession to ensure error-free transmissions, this technique uses the number of bits in a packet (a frame check sequence) divided by a pre-defined 16-bit or 32 bit polynomial as a comparable computation (a cyclical redundancy checksum) – to verify the reliability and authenticity of the data. These values can be appended to the record so that this reliability extends over time and through multiple migrations. • One-Way Hash Digest: A one-way hash involves the use of an algorithm to compress a record into a fixed length, reducing its size. necessitates the creation of a new hash digest. Challenges in Managing Records in the 21st Century 13 • Hash Digest With Digital Time Stamp: This technique combines the use of the above-described one-way hash digest with the use of a When the need arises to authenticate a record, a new hash digest can be generated and compared to the authentication certificate.

Student Document Keeping Usefulness

provide accurate records of the agency’s contact with the client and aid in continuity of case management between co-workers
aid/jog memory as over time it can be difficult to recall the specifics of each case
lend credibility - particularly if one is called to give evidence of a particular fact or matter
may add credence to a claim by a client - especially about sexual abuse or domestic violence incidents
protect the worker and the agency, particularly from later claims of negligence.