Division of Finance • IT Services Portal

General PC Management Guidelines

• Division of Finance allocates one PC per employee.  
• Multiple PCs per employee are determined by local management on an exception basis only.
• Laptop or desktop determination is decided by local management – not ITS.
• End-of-life PCs must be returned to ITS for recycling – the most common PC management process on campus.
• Division of Finance IT Services staff are not permitted to revert a Penn-owned PC to its original factory settings for personal usage or reallocation for non-business purposes.  Explanations follow below.

When do I get a new computer?  What is the refresh process?

• All PCs are routinely refreshed between 3-5 years from initial purchase date, depending on overall PC performance, historical use, updated university technical requirements, or condition and damage.
• Each year around June/July, ITS presents a list of PCs recommended for the refresh to each department head for budgetary approval.
• ITS purchases all new computers, which are built to a specific technical standard used in the Division of Finance.
• After purchase, ITS will reach out to individual customers to schedule their PC refresh.  A PC deployment appointment can typically be concluded in under two hours.

What happens to my older computer?

• Old PCs that are still viable for a lesser need, like a conference room, may be reallocated by ITS.
• PCs are otherwise collected and sent to an authorized, certified electronic waste recycling company near Penn’s campus.
• Hard drives are destroyed, rendering any leftover data irretrievable.
• Recycled PCs are shredded, separated into raw materials, and then reintroduced back into the electronics supply chain.
• Old PCs are never sent to a landfill.
• Staff are not permitted to buy back any computers originally owned by the University.

Can I take my old computer home for Mission Continuity purposes?

• All computers that connect into the Finance network must be maintained with updated security patches, software fixes, and monitoring by a central “endpoint management” system that identifies all computers on the Finance network.  
• If a PC is to be used for a bona fide university business reason, like mission continuity purposes, then it must be maintained by ITS.  PC’s cannot be “taken home and left in a drawer”, for example.  They must be actively used in order to be maintained with the most up-to-date security patches and software fixes.
• If there is a desire to use old PCs for business purposes, your local management should engage with ITS to discuss the overall need and approach necessary to re-deploy and manage the PCs.

Can I take my older computer home for (i) personal use, (ii) to give to my child, (iii) to donate elsewhere, or (iv) for some other non-Penn need?

• No.  Computers purchased by ITS have the software installed that is licensed to the University of Pennsylvania.  Accordingly, those software licensing rights do not extend to non-Penn staff, Penn staff family members, or third parties.  Allocating a PC for re-use with Penn-licensed software would violate applicable software license agreements (contracts).
• For a PC to be reallocated for non-business purposes, ITS would need to take on the labor burden of restoring a PC back to factory settings.  ITS cannot expend labor resources for non-Penn purposes.
• Restoring a PC to factory settings renders the computer a high security risk, as 3+ years worth of security patches and software fixes are rolled back off the machine.  
• PCs reallocated for personal use often come with the expectation that ITS will continue to support them; ITS is not staffed to manage a fleet of end-of-life PCs not used for business purposes.

Why can’t I buy my old computer from Penn?

• In order to pay money to the Division of Finance to buy back an old PC, we would need to develop a process to determine fair market value, ensure consistency of sales to various customers, collect monies, and also charge the appropriate Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).  
• ITS is not appropriately staffed or equipped to manage cash recovery for old PCs.  We are not aware of any IT groups on campus offering this type of service.

This seems wasteful.  Why can’t we use old computers that seem perfectly usable, or give them to a [student, non-profit organization, charity, etc.]?

• Computers purchased by ITS have software installed that is licensed to the University of Pennsylvania.  Accordingly, those software licensing rights do not extend to non-Penn staff, Penn staff family members, or third parties.  Allocating a PC for re-use with Penn-licensed software would violate applicable software license agreements (contracts).
• ITS is not able to take on the labor burden of restoring PCs to factory settings if the PC is going to be used for non-business purposes.
• Recycled PCs are shredded, separated into raw materials, and then reintroduced back into the electronics supply chain.  OId PCs are never sent to a landfill.