As a general rule staff should not be recording conversations by quoting those persons who made the comments. Quotations and the name of the person quoted are released under the Act unless they meet one of its specific exceptions. For example, minutes of meetings should not record every discussion as verbatim. In most cases a concise and objective statement explaining the discussion topic and the decision reached is more than adequate. There will be times when staff should record someone's exact words.
Some examples are cases of harassment, legal opinions and personnel issues like employee discipline.
Don't record subjective comments Staff should not be recording unsubstantiated subjective evaluations in University records. This is especially true where comments or opinions are about another individual. Under the Act, these comments are considered to be the personal information of the individual they are about and, therefore, that individual has a right of access to them. Don't write it down unless you are prepared to have it read. The Act does not differentiate between an official file and an unofficial file.