Qualtrics Data Retention Policy

We are being forced to implement a new Retention Policy for Qualtrics users on our campus license. Our latest (current) license caps the number of active users we can list within our Qualtrics instance. 

Our new policy: We will maintain College Qualtrics accounts in the system for a year post graduation or one year after an individual leaves College employment, but Qualtics accounts for users who’ve left the College will be deleted from the Qualtrics system after one year, post departure.

Previous License

Previously, we had no reason to delete users from the system, even after they were no longer connected with the College. This had the benefit of preserving surveys that individual students or staff may have collaborated on with others for the common purpose of a department, program or research lab. Faculty and colleagues did not have to worry about collaborations with partners who’d left the institution, because their accounts were never deleted, and their content was preserved.

New Terms

Now, unfortunately, we have to go back and start deleting old users who are no longer connected to the College from the Qualtrics system. This means that any surveys that folks who’ve left the College had created and "own" will be deleted along with their accounts.

What to do?

It is therefore crucial that departments, faculty, and those who may share a collaboration relationship with someone for online surveys review any surveys they may rely on for data collection, or may have collaborated on, and make sure that the current owner of that survey is an active person employed or studying at Swarthmore.

Please review any surveys hosted on web pages you control, to make sure that the ownership of those surveys is with someone currently employed by the College. Also review those surveys that you are a collaborator on, that you don’t own, to make sure you would not loose work if when that owner leaves the College.

Please see How to check who has shared surveys with you as a collaborator for detailed instructions on identifying surveys for which you may need to take action.

Help is available!

ITS can can help transfer surveys for which the ownership is out of date, or is with someone who has left the College within a year. Contact ITS Support for assistance. But once an account is deleted, any associated surveys are lost to us, and we can not recover them.