After two years of continuous work, the Human Resources (HR) team at the Faculty of Education of Unicamp (FE-Unicamp) concluded, in December 2025, the project for the selection, organization, and disposal of the Unit's Sectoral Archive. This initiative involved technical screening, definition of document storage and disposal flows, and forwarding of historical materials for evaluation and preservation. The initial diagnosis of the archive's situation was carried out by the supervisor of Building Administration, Cleonice Pereira Pardim de Oliveira, based on the identification of inadequate storage conditions and the accumulation of documents without archival treatment. Leading the daily management of the process was the staff member Angélica Aparecida de Souza Pádua, who reports having found, at the beginning, a room with "numerous cabinets overflowing with files and documents," bringing together materials from different sectors—undergraduate, postgraduate, management, and other areas—without standardization and with a large volume of copies and items without clear identification.
According to Angélica, the challenge was not just "finding" a physical space, but ensuring that each document had an appropriate destination, respecting institutional norms and archival criteria: first, identifying what each set of documents was; then, defining whether it should be eliminated, archived for a specific period, or preserved as a historical document. To this end, a decisive step was the creation of a Sectoral Commission, with representatives from the areas involved, as the body responsible for monitoring decisions and recording the actions taken.
Among the participants in the document selection process, intern Luiz Carlos Caetano Júnior (Director) and patrol officer Yasmin Vitoria Teixeira de Carvalho (HR) stand out. Under the guidance of Angélica and the Unit's Technical Coordinator, Tassiane Bragagnolo, they carried out the initial screening of documents in July 2024, contributing to the preliminary identification of the document sets and the organization of the subsequent stages of the work.
With the committee structured, the HR department sought technical support from the body responsible for archival storage and guidance at the University and relied on the on-site work of two specialized professionals from the Unicamp Archives System (SIARQ), Maria Aparecida Forti and Vera Lúcia Nascimento dos Santos, cited as fundamental in accelerating classification, consultation of the retention schedule, and organization of the elimination and archiving workflow. One of the central elements of the project was the creation of a dossier in the institutional system (SIGAD), in which the processes destined for elimination were registered, with signatures from the team and the necessary procedures, including publication in the Official Gazette before disposal, ensuring traceability and transparency about what was eliminated and why.
Throughout 2024 and 2025, the work progressed through cycles of classification, validation, and disposal. From August 2025, the project also included the participation of Administrative Coordinator Layra Pereira de Oliveira and Administrative Technician Júlia Ribeiro Magalhães Dini (HR), reinforcing the team responsible for the final stages of organizing, validating, and forwarding the documents. Part of the collection was sent for digitization and institutional storage, including boxes of physical files that, due to the nature of their content, need to remain archived. In parallel, materials authorized for disposal underwent secure disposal, with the documents being shredded after official publication, a step that required operational effort and support from different sectors. Angélica emphasizes that the project was only viable as a collective effort, with the participation of employees from partner areas and logistical support for removing materials from cabinets and handling them.
The conclusion, at the end of 2025, meant not only the elimination of accumulated liabilities, but also the reorganization of what should remain as institutional memory. Angélica reports that, at the close of the cycle, "we don't have any paper there anymore" and that the project's goal—executed over two years, with 2025 as a period of intensified work—was met. Among the items identified as relevant for preservation, she cites, for example, a register book of the Faculty's first enrollments, with handwritten notes from the early 1970s, as well as registration forms with photos, historical documents, and typewritten materials, which help to reconstruct administrative and academic practices from other periods.
For the FE's Management and HR department, the project's completion in December 2025 consolidates an institutional gain on several fronts: improved storage and access conditions, compliance with document retention and disposal regulations, secure disposal of sensitive documents, and strengthening the preservation of the Unit's memory. Angélica's work, in coordinating administrative routines, internal stakeholders, and technical dialogue with the University's archival bodies, was crucial in transforming the Sectoral Archive from an indiscriminate repository into one operating with institutional criteria, record-keeping, and accountability.
About the project: Initiated in 2024 and completed in December 2025, the project to organize the FE-Unicamp sectorial archive involved the formation of a sectorial commission, a partnership with SIARQ, the classification of thousands of documents dating back to the 1970s, the preservation of historical material, and the proper disposal of documents whose retention period had expired, all duly recorded and published in accordance with University regulations.
