SF 115 Summary

POINT PAPER

To: Maurice King, DON Records Officer

Subj: Naval Academy Request for Changes to Chapter One of the Crosswalk

Date: July 14, 2021

BACKGROUND

Since the change to the current DON bucket schedule retentions, USNA has found several unique problems regarding the disposition of records pertaining to SSIC 1531 (Naval Academy Records). SSIC 1531 covers midshipmen (students) records and standard education requirements, but it also covers Academy program records such as USNA volunteer and gratuitous services records (i.e., our museum, sailing program, midshipman sponsor program, Blue and Gold Program, teaching services and support, chaplain center, and more), summer program records, and midshipmen development center records. All of these programs support the Naval Academy and the midshipmen and have no other SSIC, so they have always been assigned

SSIC 1531.

Before the change to the Crosswalk, we successfully managed our unique records using the more inclusive and much less restrictive disposition language found in SECNAV M-5210.1 (2007). The new bucket dispositions pertaining to SSIC 1531 do not fit the needs of the Academy for the reasons described below.

DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. SSIC 1531.1 (Primary Program Records) fell under NARA schedule (N1-NU-86-1), which stated “PERMANENT. Transfer to U.S. Naval Academy Archives when no longer needed for current Academy business.” The new crosswalk bucket for these records fall under Bucket 1000-1 with a disposition of “PERMANENT: Cutoff at CY. Transfer to the National Archives 30 years after cutoff.”

Issue: USNA has a NARA affiliated certified Archive (DRMD has a copy of agreement with NARA) located in the Naval Academy Library. All the archival records associated with Record Group 405 (Naval Academy Records) are archived at the Naval Academy in the NARA affiliated archive. We do not send our archival records away from the Academy. The Naval Academy sends our primary program records to our library when they are no longer needed for business use, and our Archivist typically archives instructions as soon as they are issued (she gets the copies from distribution emails). We request that DRMD/NARA allow us to keep our original transfer instructions of transferring our records to the Naval Academy Archives (again, this is equivalent to transferring records to NARA) when no longer needed for business use.

Issue 1. Recommended Solution: Add wording to the transfer instructions of bucket 1000-1 to read “Transfer to National Archives 30 years after cutoff or to your approved local NARA affiliated archive when business use ceases.”

Issue 1. Alternate Solution: Create a new disposition for USNA primary program records (SSIC 1531.1) to return to original disposition of “PERMANENT. Transfer to U.S. Naval Academy Archives when no longer needed for current Academy business.”

2. SSIC 1531.2 (Administrative Records) fell under (N1-NU-86-1), which stated “Retain on board. Destroy when superseded, obsolete, or no longer needed for reference.” The new current crosswalk bucket disposition for these records is 1000-37 with a disposition of “TEMPORARY: Cutoff at CY. Destroy 1 year after cutoff.”

Issue: SSIC 1531.2 encompasses all of the Naval Academy temporary records not covered by another SSIC (this includes all of the unique records mentioned above in the background). We first noticed the new disposition issues when working on OMB information packages regarding temporary midshipmen records. These records needed at least a 7-year disposition for MDC certification and admissions reapplication reasons, which is why we originally requested to move SSIC 1531.2 under new Bucket 1000-27, with a disposition of 7 years and a cutoff at class graduation or completion of training (which would work for these specific temporary records). While working on other OMB packages unique to USNA records, records being maintained under SSIC 1531.2 (all associated instructions and forms are numbered using SSIC 1531), we discovered new Bucket 1000-27 wouldn’t work for records not implicitly tied to a midshipman nor the academic year/specific class (i.e. all the unique volunteers and gratuitous service records and summer program records). These records wouldn’t have a cutoff at class graduation or completion of training, nor would we need to keep most of these records for 7 years (especially the PII of individuals attending a camp for a couple days in the summer).

Issue 2. Recommendation: None of the chapter one bucket dispositions fit all the unique records covered under 1531.2, therefore USNA recommends moving SSIC 1531.2 from bucket 1000-37 to under bucket 5000-98 (Administrative Records) “TEMPORARY: Destroy when business use ceases” in chapter 5 to meet all of the unique 1531.2 requirements. This bucket has the same title as SSIC 1531.2 and would allow us to continue managing records according to our old schedule with no further action required.

Issue 2. Alternate solution: Move SSIC 1531.2 under bucket 1000-27 for temporary midshipmen records and create new categories of records under 1531 (.6, .7, .8…) to cover all other unique Naval Academy records that would have typically been filed under 1531.2 (covered in background). This would entail creating new bucket disposition schedules for both USNA volunteer records and summer program records at a minimum, as they have no other bucket on the crosswalk they could fit under. If this path is chosen, we may need to periodically add more numbers under SSIC 1531 as USNA discovers additional unique records no longer covered under the new schedule. We would anticipate finding these as the USNA Records Manager assists each new records custodian with making office file plans.

Issue 3. SSIC 1531.3/4 Midshipmen Personnel Jackets and Machine Readable Midshipman Records fell under two different permanent dispositions. The first one dealt with original paper records, NARA is transitioning away from paper records, with transfer instructions sending them to the Naval Academy Archives after verification of microfilm (2 years after class graduates). The second one was for our machine-readable database records with transfer instructions sending copies of the machine-readable records to the Naval Academy Archives 3 years after class graduation. We no longer use microfilm and we haven’t transferred any copies of machine-readable records to our archives because our archives are transitioning to accepting electronic records of that magnitude. The new bucket disposition schedule for both of these records is 1000-8 with disposition “PERMANENT: Cutoff upon class graduation. Transfer to the National Archives 25 years after cutoff.”

Issue: The Naval Academy uses the machine-readable records for creation of official transcripts for past graduates and continuously for research and data analysis. The 25-year transfer language limits our ability to make official transcripts for past graduates and use the data for research and assessment. At a minimum, we would need the data in our official system for the creation of official transcripts for the life of a graduate (this is why we originally asked for a change to the transfer instructions to 79 years, life expectancy under the Privacy Act).

Issue 3. Recommendation: Add wording to the transfer instructions of bucket 1000-8 to read “Transfer to the National Archives 25 years after graduation or to your approved local NARA affiliated archive when business use ceases.”

Issue 3. Alternate Solution: Create a new bucket schedule for USNA Midshipmen Personnel Jackets and Machine-Readable Midshipman Records with a disposition of “PERMANENT. Transfer to U.S. Naval Academy Archives when no longer needed for current Academy business.”

SUMMARY

The Naval Academy’s individual recommendations and alternate solutions are included in the above narrative. USNA requests DRMD’s assistance to work with NARA to come up with the ideal solutions for each of the issues explained above.

Prepared by: Ronda McKay Approved by: Shannon Campbell

USNA Records Manager Superintendent’s Admin Officer