Email Retention Question Surfaces at COD

College of the Desert to Implement ‘Phase Two’ of Email Retention Process This Summer

PALM DESERT — The subject line of a June 25 email sent out to College of the Desert staff had a chilling effect on some who read it and startled others as the email gained a wider audience. The subject line was: Email Retention Change – Phase Two – July 25th, 2024.

Effective July 25, 2024, Information Technology will be setting email retention to three years of history, which reduces retention by four years, according to the email Stuart Davis, executive director of Educational Technology, sent.

The issue of reducing email retention comes at a time when the city of Palm Springs has sued College of the Desert for allegedly not complying with the California Public Records Act.

The law requires public agencies to make public documents available upon request in a timely manner. The city says COD has not done that.

Reducing the email retention greatly reduces the overhead and costs associated with email retention for our District, Davis said in the email.

“This also helps further expedite record restoration and record requests as associated with email. Following this change, you will be
unable to access any emails older than three years, so if you have older emails that you want to save, you can save them individually,” he wrote. “Information Technology will be unable to restore emails older than three years after this change has been implemented.”

This effort was discussed at various groups throughout the College in the spring semester and was approved to move forward, he said.

“College of the Desert is committed to transparency, compliance, and the highest standards of governance,” Nicholas Robles, interim public information officer, told Uken Report. “We appreciate the opportunity to address concerns and provide clarity regarding our recent email retention policy changes.”

Background for Changes to Email Retention Policy

The email retention policy change is part of a long-term, phased, planning process that has been in development for several years, dating back to September 2021, Robles said   in a  statement,

“The changes were recommended with the goal that we would align to the best practices of similar public agencies, increase email responsiveness, expedite record restoration and record requests, and increase security against modern cyber threats,” Robles said. “Once implemented, the new email retention practice will also reduce costs across several fiscal years once completely implemented.”

The Board of Trustees approved the standards for Phase I in June 2022, and emails older than seven years were removed, Robles said. Phase I allowed College of the Desert’s Information Technology to meet data storage limitations and migrate email services to Office 365, which helped address security vulnerabilities.

In December 2023, the Executive Cabinet approved Phase II, which will minimize retention from seven years to three years, Robles said. In February 2024, internal outreach began to inform faculty and staff of these upcoming changes.

“Progress has been paused to allow for extra communication and transparency with the campus community and external community,” Robles said. “Although our Administrative Policy 3310 provides the college the ability to continue with the changes, we want to give stakeholders additional time to learn and understand the changes brought about by Phase II of the plan.

Although the transition commenced in 2021, the Information Technology department under the leadership of Vice President of Administrative Services Rod Garcia, has overseen this transition in the past year. The shift has been carefully coordinated with the participation of our Board of Trustees, Executive Cabinet, and internal governance, ensuring a comprehensive and inclusive approach.

Consideration for Legal Proceedings

“We understand there are ongoing legal proceedings, including a lawsuit filed by the City of Palm Springs,” Robles said, “We assure all stakeholders that relevant records have been preserved to comply with legal requirements and that the forensic audit can proceed without compromise.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Robles said. “We remain dedicated to addressing any further questions and upholding the trust placed in us by our community and stakeholders.”

 

You may read Davis’ email in its entirety by clicking the link.