Reminder - Open Records

Greetings, Georgia College Community:

In accordance with the Georgia Open Records Act, Georgia College follows the Board of Regents Policy on Employee Personnel Records.

Please click the following link to review the Georgia Open Records Act O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70, -74 (2021).

In the course of your duties at GCSU, you may receive an open records request.  If you do, whether verbal or written, please direct it to the Office of Legal Affairs where we will then take it from there.  If you would like copies of public records, as allowed under the Act, please submit an Open Records Request via the online submission form.

The Georgia Open Records Act requires that public records be open and available for review by any member of the public whether they are a Georgia citizen, or not. The vast majority of documents in the possession of University personnel must be made available under the Open Records Act. These documents include for example:

• student evaluations of academic courses;
• personnel files of all employees (excluding Social Security numbers, medical information or information relating to the designation of beneficiaries);
• employee performance evaluations;
• any email sent or received relate to work matters;
• hand-written notes;
•  videotapes; and photographs.
• Records held by private persons for a state agency, and records held away from the work site, are also subject to the Open Records Act.

It is important to note that any work-related records (writings, pictures, videos, etc.) that you store on your devices can be subject to public disclosure.  Please keep this in mind when saving records.  Please also do not delete any work related records unless doing so follows USG records retention schedules.  See here: https://www.usg.edu/records_management/schedules/

Thank you!