Staff Handbook

(Arkansas Freedom of Information Act - Arkansas Code Ann. §25-19-101 et seq.; AHRMS Policy Manual, 115; Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 207.0)

You have the right to examine and copy the information contained in your own personnel file. Official personnel records for all classified employees are maintained in University of Arkansas Human Resources, where you may view your own file at any time during regular business hours. Your department may also maintain personnel records. If so, you have the right to view your own file at any time during regular business hours. Your designated representative may also view your personnel files.

Your personnel records may also be viewed by University officials who have a legitimate need to review them, such as your supervisor, your prospective supervisor if you have applied for a promotion or transfer, persons involved in the investigation or settlement of a formal grievance or complaint filed by an employee, and attorneys and others who are investigating state workers' compensation claims.

Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, any citizen of the State of Arkansas may inspect and copy personnel records except to the extent that disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Before others are allowed to inspect or copy your files, the following types of information will be removed: social security and income tax information, medical and insurance information, information about retirement annuities, information about family and marital and parental status, unlisted telephone numbers and addresses not intended for publication, and scholastic or academic records. Your evaluation or job performance records, including your performance evaluations, are disclosed only if there has been a final administrative resolution of a suspension or termination proceeding at which the records formed the basis for the suspension or termination, and there is a compelling public interest in their disclosure.

Within twenty-four hours of receiving a request for inspection of your personnel records, the University must determine whether the records are subject to disclosure and notify you of the request and the determination. You may seek an opinion immediately from the Attorney General about whether the records are subject to disclosure.

In the event of a law enforcement or agency investigation in which your personnel records are relevant, they made be made available to University attorneys and others involved in the investigation or litigation. Your records may also be made available in response to a lawfully issued subpoena or court order.