OIT Policy - OIT-002
University policy FN14 addresses the appropriate use of tangible assets and services. In line with that policy, Penn State Altoona’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) is tasked with the purchase, provisioning, and maintenance of all information technology assets (defined as including, but not limited to software licenses and agreements, computer hardware, printers, peripherals, and cloud services).
This policy outlines Penn State Altoona’s standards for procurement, assignment, maintenance, and replacement of IT assets that are assigned to faculty and staff and/or faculty and staff groups (such as departments or divisions, research labs, etc.).
Procurement and Assignment
All IT purchases, regardless of funding source, must be made by OIT; this includes equipment specification, order processing, and delivery. This allows the campus to ensure that the campus and university comply with university, state, and federal security and privacy standards, software licensing agreements, support contracts, etc. Faculty and staff must contact the Service Desk for assistance with all IT purchases, including new purchases, renewals, etc.
OIT will provide and support each faculty or staff with a single primary office computing configuration. Customers may choose from a number of configurations during the initial purchase or replacement process. These configurations include the most commonly requested products (laptops, desktops, tablets) and are optimized for price and support.
Any request for additional equipment must be submitted by department or division head, include a business or academic justification, and be approved by OIT prior to purchase.
OIT will evaluate all purchase requests for supportability and may refuse requests for equipment and/or configurations that create undue expense and/or maintenance overhead. However, OIT will make every effort to work with the requestor to find a way to provide them with necessary computing resources.
Faculty and staff members who secure grants must work with OIT throughout the process to ensure that: (1) grant proposals that request IT equipment include all necessary equipment and that price estimates are accurate; (2) any IT equipment procured with grant funds are procured through OIT; (3) all IT assets (as defined above) purchased are inventoried as appropriate, based on grant and university regulations.
Maintenance and Replacement
Customers must contact the Service Desk for all IT equipment support and maintenance requests.
Each Penn State Altoona faculty and staff member will be eligible for an upgrade to their primary configuration every five years.
When the customer’s existing setup is upgraded, all old equipment must be returned to OIT at the time of upgrade. Penn State Altoona does not resell IT equipment for personal or business use.
Used equipment cannot be kept by faculty or staff for continued use without consultation with OIT. If additional computing resources are necessary, the faculty or staff member must work with their department or division head to submit a request (see Procurement, above).
