A separate folder containing personnel data for each individual employee in UTSI is maintained in the Human Resources Office. Such file constitutes the official personnel file of the employee. Contained in each personnel file are such documents as a copy of the appointment form, the Leave Record form for each year, Educational Assistance (Fee Waiver) forms, the Authorization of Disclosure form (for individuals employed after July 1, 1978), information on disciplinary action, and other such data. With appropriate notice, employees may review the contents of their folders within the Human Resourcs Office.

Each employee is invited to complete an Authorization of Disclosure form, which restricts the release of information from the employee's personnel file to what has been authorized by the employee on the form. (However, Tennessee law permits the inspection of all information contained in a personnel file by any citizen of the State of Tennessee.) The absence of an Authorization of Disclosure form in a personnel file will be interpreted as an open file. There may be exceptions to the Authorization of Disclosure form such as:

1. Necessary responses to national salary survey, without by-name identification;
2. Requirements of federal, state, or local law; or
3. Response to a physician who is seeking to inform an individual of a possible medical problem.