Title: Surplus IT & Computer Equipment Reuse Policy
Approved by: Office of the President
Date approved by President or Board of Trustees: January 8, 2014
Effective date: January 8, 2014
Responsible Official: UTech Security and Policy
Responsible University Office: UTech Security and Policy
Revision History: 2
Related legislation and University policies: None
Review Period: 3 Years
Date of Last Review: July 26, 2024
Relates to: Faculty, Staff
Summary
This procedure is to establish a university standard methodology for the authorized re-use, recycling, resale, and donation of specified IT equipment.
Purpose
This policy establishes a university standard methodology for the authorized re-use, recycling, resale, and donation of specified IT equipment.
The functional life-cycle of university-owned IT equipment is typically defined by a technology refresh cycle of approximately three years. Although such equipment may no longer meet the current needs of the university, it can still fulfill the computing requirements of charities and individuals. Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) aims to make excess, yet usable, IT equipment available to qualified charities, as well as to CWRU faculty, staff, and students, through the University IT Reuse-Recycling vendor.
Surplus IT and computer equipment that has not yet reached the eligibility window must first be offered to internal university departments. Once IT equipment is deemed surplus and meets the eligibility criteria, it shall be donated to the University IT Reuse-Recycling vendor.
Responsible equipment owners must ensure that any sensitive local data is wiped from hard drives in accordance with the Media Sanitization Procedure. Additionally, the Systems Release form must be used to deregister the equipment. This step is particularly crucial for UTech systems, which may have fixed IP addresses assigned to their MAC addresses.
Directed donations to specific charitable organizations can be requested through the University IT Reuse-Recycling vendor.
Definitions
Surplus IT Equipment is defined as:
- No longer supports a business need of the university, and
- The equipment age exceeds the purchase date and available warranty period, plus one year, and
- typical desktop- 5 years
- typical laptop- 4 years
- Is sufficiently functional to provide reasonable usability (otherwise, it is e-waste)
Surplus equipment does not include: any equipment containing data under litigation hold. Note that some Government grant-purchased or research-contract-purchased IT equipment is not eligible for donation.
MAC address: the machine access code programmed into each network card or interface which identifies a computer on the Case network.
IP address: the internet protocol address for the computer.