Computer Retirement

I. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is twofold; to document the issues and recommendations regarding the disposition of computer equipment, and to ensure those guidelines are known to the campus community. Computer systems and peripherals such as printers, scanners, and other electronic devices are included in the term “computer equipment” in this document.

II. Description

As computer equipment reaches the end of its useful life at the University, it is recycled. There are campus and governmental issues to consider when retiring computer equipment from use by the institution. These pertain not only to the hardware, but also data and software on the machine. The Endpoint & Client Service (E&CS) department of Information Resources and Technology (IRT) has procedures in place to ensure the recycling is done according to both legal and campus regulations. This document outlines the procedures for machine retirement.

• Computer equipment owned by a business cannot simply be thrown away. There are Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that require certain types of electronic equipment to be disposed of according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 42 U.S.C. §6901 et seq. 1976 and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of 1984. The purpose of these regulations is to ensure the environmentally responsible disposal of computers and other used electronic equipment.
• To ensure compliance with FERPA, HIPAA, and potentially other privacy-protecting legislation, the University must make every reasonable effort to remove data from computers before they leave the campus for any reason.
• Endpoint & Client Services has tools and procedures to ensure the removal of potentially sensitive University and/or personal data before systems are retired off-campus. Departments should take care to ensure systems used for University business are appropriately configured before reallocating them elsewhere on campus (for instance, a system redeployed from primary use by an employee to a student worker).
• Computers and peripherals which have a Bradley asset tag (BUtag) affixed to the CPU are considered University assets. When a computer or peripheral is no longer in use on campus, it must be removed from the appropriate asset management systems.
• • Before a computer with a BUtag is removed from campus for any reason, the tag must be removed and provided to E&CS. This serves two purposes – the system is removed from the E&CS asset management database of computer equipment, and the tag is provided to the Controller’s Office so they may retire the asset.

III. Procedures

When an asset has been slated for retirement by a University department, a service request should be opened with the Service Desk, 309-677-2964. The Service Desk will obtain the location of the machine, a contact for the disposal and the user’s wishes for the machine. A representative of E&CS will contact the service request initiator and/or pick up the retired items and prepare them for disposition.

Equipment that has the potential for productive use on campus will be retained. The final decision for whether a system is to be recycled or retained for redistribution on campus is made by E&CS after considering campus needs. Computer equipment owned by the University may not be resold to other departments, employees, or to external organizations.

IV. Scope

This policy pertains to faculty and staff using Bradley University owned computers.