Changing a School's Tech Disposal Policy?

An anonymous reader writes "I attend a state university where a new building has recently been put in, and a new budget put in place. They have decided to upgrade all the computer systems involved in the department, with a few slight exceptions. From my limited understanding, State policy is that we cannot just let things go, they have to be sent back to the state capital in order to take them off the books. Then they put them in the dumpster. I feel that this is a huge waste of useful machines (some are merely two years old), but I know not how to change this. Any suggestions, or does anyone know where Illinois dumps used tech?"

Comments

Why tak ethem off the books?

[ePhil_One]

They have decided to upgrade all the computer systems involved in the department If they are only upgrading ONE department, why not find out what other departments withing the university might be able to use them?

Re:Why tak ethem off the books?

[archkittens]

i attend a rather high-tech (by NC's standards) highschool where we do something similar. our network administrators place new machines into the digital arts and computer engineering classrooms, remove the machines that were there, and place them throughout the school wherever they're needed, replacing pretty much every machine with something ever so slightly better. unfortunately, the math and science classrooms are always the last to be upgraded... anyone remember the white IBM netvistas? i've used one today, and am currently typing from a newish lenovo IBM thinkcentre.

Options

[Archangel Michael]

http://www.computersforclassrooms.org/

While the computers need to be taken off the books, that is accomplished by paperwork. There are computer re-furbishers and recyclers like the one listed above (a non-profit 501.c.3) that will take any and all computers as donations to be recycled or deployed to schools.

Usually the biggest pain is the stupid paperwork needed by the state to remove computers from inventory systems. They ought to just expire all computers from inventory after 5 years (or whatever), automatically.

Re:Businesses do things differently

[Fast Thick Pants]

standardizing on a few machines and tossing them out when another technology renewal is due is *good*. It makes management easier and allows IT to keep things running smoothly.

Sure, it's an easy fix in the short run. But 100 years down the line when the average surface temperature is 105 degrees Fahrenheit and gasoline costs $70 a gallon, you'll be defending your water tower and solar panel arrays from the hordes, running low on ammunition, stinking like a hog... Then you'll wish you'd done your part to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

(Hopefully your boss can see the logic in this...)

Attend? Administer!

[SleptThroughClass]

You attend the school and are asking us how things work? Go to the Administration building (you went there once when you enrolled) and ask anyone there what is the procedure for old equipment. You'll be directed to someone who actually knows the procedure.

What probably happens is the old equipment is put on a school list and offered to other departments. What they don't want is sent to the state (removed from the school's inventory but still on the state's inventory because they paid for it). The state offers the stuff to state agencies. What state agencies don't want gets auctioned off, so as to get maximum value back from the taxpayer's investment. Depending upon the stuff, it might get bought by a company for its own use, a store for resale, or a recycling company for whatever value is in the parts. Whatever won't sell will get to experience the state's garbage procedure (for computers it's probably a recycling process).