(1) Oregon Health and Science University may adopt policies governing access to university personnel records that are less than 25 years old.
(2) Policies adopted under subsection (1) of this section shall require that personnel records be subjected to restrictions on access unless the president of the university finds that the public interest in maintaining individual rights to privacy in an adequate educational environment would not suffer by disclosure of such records. Access to such records may be limited to designated classes of information or persons, or to stated times and conditions, or to both, but cannot be limited for records more than 25 years old.
(3) No rule or order adopted pursuant to this section shall deny to a faculty member full access to the member’s personnel file or records kept by the university, except as provided in subsection (4)(d) and (e) of this section.
(4)(a) The files relating to the evaluation of a faculty member shall be kept in designated, available locations.
(b) Any evaluation received by telephone shall be documented in each of the faculty member’s files by means of a written summary of the conversation with the names of the conversants identified.
(c) A faculty member shall be entitled to submit, for placement in the files, evidence rebutting, correcting, amplifying or explaining any document contained therein and other material that the member believes might be of assistance in the evaluation process.
(d) Letters and other information for a faculty member of the university submitted in confidence to the State Board of Higher Education or its institutions, schools or departments prior to July 1, 1975, shall be maintained in the files designated by paragraph (a) of this subsection. However, if a faculty member requests access to those files, the anonymity of the contributor of letters and other information obtained prior to July 1, 1975, shall be protected. The full text shall be made available, except that portions of the text that would serve to identify the contributor shall be excised by a faculty committee. Only the names of the contributors and the excised portions of the documents may be kept in a file other than the files designated by paragraph (a) of this subsection.
(e) Confidential letters and other information submitted to or solicited by the university after July 1, 1995, and prior to the employment of a prospective faculty member are exempt from the provisions of this paragraph. However, if the member is employed by the university, the confidential preemployment materials shall be placed in the files designated by paragraph (a) of this subsection. If a faculty member requests access to the member’s files, the anonymity of the contributor of confidential preemployment letters and other preemployment information shall be protected. The full text shall be made available, except that portions of the text that would serve to identify the contributor shall be excised and retained in a file other than the files designated by paragraph (a) of this subsection.
(f) Classroom survey evaluations by students of a faculty member’s classroom or laboratory performance shall be anonymous. The record of tabulated reports shall be placed in at least one of the files designated by paragraph (a) of this subsection. All survey instruments used to obtain evaluation data shall be returned to the faculty member.
(g) The university, when evaluating its employed faculty members, shall not solicit or accept letters, documents or other materials, given orally or in written form, from individuals or groups who wish their identity kept anonymous or the information they provide kept confidential.
(5) No policy or order adopted pursuant to this section limits the authority of the university to prepare, without identification of individual persons who have not consented thereto, statistical or demographic reports from personnel records.
(6) Any category of personnel records specifically designated as confidential pursuant to valid policies or orders as provided in this section shall not be deemed a public record for the purposes of ORS 192.420.
(7) As used in this section, “personnel records” means records containing information kept by the university concerning a faculty member and furnished by the faculty member or by others about the faculty member at the member’s or at the university’s request, including but not limited to information concerning discipline, membership activity, employment performance or other personal records of individual persons. [1995 c.162 §23; 1999 c.291 §9]
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