A schedule, not a guess
Every record type at Porter — a student transcript, a purchasing contract, a committee’s meeting minutes — has a retention period set in advance rather than decided when someone finally asks whether it can be deleted. Some records, like the 1893 charter, are kept permanently by design.
Handling a public records request
As a public university, Porter responds to open-records requests from journalists, researchers and the public within the state’s required window; the records office can explain what is exempt (personnel and student-privacy records, mostly) before a requester spends time waiting on something that will not be released.
Disposal is a process, not an event
Paper records past their retention date are shredded on a documented schedule rather than as a one-off office clean-out, and electronic records are wiped to a certified standard. Departments that want to keep something past its scheduled date need a signed exception, not just a reluctance to delete it.
The practical details
Retention schedule: Set by record type, from 3 to permanent. Public records requests: Acknowledged within 10 business days. Secure disposal: Shredding and certified electronic wipe, logged. These specifics can change from year to year, so confirm anything time-sensitive directly with the office below before you rely on it.
If you have a question
This is handled by Business Services (Millwright Hall, Room 60). Call (715) 555–0255 or email purchasing@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.