Faculty Workstation Program Guidelines

Faculty Workstation Program Guidelines

2011 - 2012

A. General Guidelines

1. Direct Allocations to Colleges and Units: Beginning with FY1999, allocations for the Faculty Workstation Program were made directly to participating colleges and units on a percentage of a count of eligible faculty. The Faculty Workstation Review Committee reviewed this procedure in the summer of 2009. For the purposes of this program, eligible faculty will be counted as follows:


Eligible Faculty (College Station) =Head Count Tenured + Head Count Tenure-Track
+ Head Count Senior/Distinguished Lecturer
+ FTE Lecturers (title code 7500 only)
+ Special Cases (see below)
Eligible Faculty (Galveston) = 2/3 * [Head Count Tenured
+ Head Count Tenure-Track
+ Head Count Senior/Distinguished Lecturer
+ Head Count Clinical/Research/Executive/Instructional/Senior
+ FTE Lecturers (title code 7500 only)]

The formula for Galveston is based on a maximum central administrative contribution of $1,000 versus $1,500 for College Station units.

2. Faculty Eligibility: The Faculty Workstation Program applies only to tenured, tenure-track, Senior/Distinguished Lecturers, Lecturers (title code 7500), Librarians I-IV, and those special cases given above. This means that titles such as Visiting, Instructor, Assistant Lecturer, and Graduate Assistant Lecturer are not eligible.

One of the original program assumptions was that a single machine per office would be supplied to part-time Lecturers sharing an office. This assumption was used in originally sizing the program for 1,800 tenured and tenure-track faculty and 300 units for Lecturers' offices. The use of FTE in counting Lecturers (title code 7500) in the current allocation formula is an attempt to capture this guideline. The FY 2011 number of eligible faculty for the College Station and Galveston campus calculated from the formula above is 2,599. This number is larger than the original target of 2,100.

3. Priority: The highest priority will continue to be new faculty without a workstation. The second highest priority will be faculty with a four-year old workstation. If a college elects optional three-year replacement (see below), these three-year replacements will be at a lower priority than new faculty without a workstation and four-year old machine replacements. Colleges are free to develop their own procedure for priority allocation as long as it recognizes that we want every faculty member to have a workstation with network access that is no older than four years.

4. Four-Year Cycle with Optional Three-Year Replacement: This program runs on a four-year cycle replacing at least 500 units/year and FY 2012 is the 17th year of the program. Machines purchased in FY 2008 are up for replacement this year. Because of the significant decreases in PC prices, some colleges believe that with current funding they may be able to replace a portion of their machines on a three-year cycle (FY 2009 purchase date for three-year replacement), while still meeting the requirement that all faculty workstations be replaced at least every four years.

5. Matching Requirements:

College Station Units – The university central pool match for College Station units is $3.00 for each $1.00 provided by the college, up to a maximum of $1,500 from the central pool for a $500 contribution from the college, department, or individual faculty members grant funds. Any amount over $2,000 total is the responsibility of the college, the department, or the individual faculty member’s grant funds. The college-matching requirement remains in effect even though the central pool funds are being transferred to the colleges for administration. No central pool funds, including carryover from a previous year, may be used unless the use conforms to the matching policy above.
TAMU-Galveston – The university central pool match for Galveston is $1.00 for each $1.00 provided by TAMU-Galveston, up to a maximum of $1,000 from the central pool for a $1,000 contribution from TAMU-Galveston, TAMU-Galveston department, or TAMU-Galveston individual faculty members grant funds. Any amount over $2,000 total is the responsibility of TAMU-Galveston, the department, or the individual faculty member’s grant funds. The TAMU-Galveston matching requirement remains in effect even though the central pool funds are to be transferred to TAMU-Galveston to be administered locally. No central pool funds, including carryover from a previous year, may be used unless the use conforms to the matching policy above.

6. Network Connection Requirement: The award must be used to purchase a 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps network connection for any office that is not already wired. Funds may also be used to upgrade the network connection from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Because of the possibility of a backlog in installing network connections, a request should be submitted as early as possible. Information on requesting a network connection for College Station units is available at nis.tamu.edu. Note that an account number for billing must be supplied to Computing and Information Services (CIS) since no money is being held back centrally to pay for network connections.

7. Types of Equipment and Funding: The program supports faculty office computing, and it provides funding for one computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, or tablet), or an upgrade of one computer, per faculty member at least every four years.

The $1,500 in central funds is a maximum amount, but it is not a guarantee that each faculty member will receive $1,500 in each cycle. Colleges and Departments have the flexibility to adjust the amount available to best meet their needs. For example, some departments have elected to replace machines on a three-year cycle by spending less per machine. In other cases, the increase in faculty size has necessitated a decrease in the maximum since the funding for the program has remained fixed.

In addition to mass storage peripherals of all types, printers, scanners, and digital cameras are also acceptable. Several faculty members may pool their funds to purchase a shared printer. Since this is first and foremost a computer workstation program, however, scanners, digital cameras, and printers are limited to a maximum of $400 each.

8. Software: A maximum of $300.00 can be used to purchase software or access to databases in support of the faculty member’s instructional or scholarly activities. If a department participates in a yearly site license for software or databases, these funds may be used to prepay multiple years of coverage.

B. Allocations and Reporting

1. Allocations: Allocations to colleges and units will be made in September of each year using faculty data supplied yearly by Data and Research Services and the Office of the Dean of Faculties. Funds will be transferred once the report from the previous year (see below) has been submitted and reviewed by the Office of the Vice President and Associate Provost for Information Technology.

2. Carryover Funds: The expectation is that all funds allocated to colleges and units for the Faculty Workstation Program will be spent each year. Carryover funds will be limited to 10% of the previous year’s central allocation. Any funds exceeding 10% on August 31 will be returned to the central pool where they will be included in the total for distribution to the colleges in the next year.

3. Yearly Report: Each Dean's office and the VP/CEO of TAMU-Galveston will submit a spreadsheet in electronic form by August 31 of each year. A spreadsheet template will be available, or units can use their own format as long as it contains the following information:

Last Name Faculty Member.
First Name Faculty Member.
Faculty Rank.
Fiscal Year in which faculty member previously received equipment from the Faculty Workstation Program.
Department.
University Central Pool Match (max $1,500).
Total System Cost.
Network Connection Required (1 = Yes or 0 = No).
Type of System (e.g., Pentium 4 2.2 GHz, Mac G5 1.25 GHz, Sun Ultra).

C. Purchasing Process

1. Online Purchasing: Texas A&M University’s Department of Procurement Services has agreements in place to sell personal computers (PC and Mac), UNIX workstations, and related hardware. Information is available from the Texas A&M University’s Procurement Services website purchasing.tamu.edu/ssps/suppmall/index.asp. The services provided include web-based online catalog, online customer configuration, and online ordering. There is also a standard desktop computer configuration that provides an even greater savings.

2. Alternative Machines: While we expect most participants to utilize the on-line purchasing process, there is no requirement to use this program. For PC purchases, we encourage you to investigate with the Department of Procurement Services using the university’s standard desktop computer and additional tiered discounts for large purchases with selected vendors. Please note that the funds from the central pool are local funds, and appropriate procedures applicable to these funds must be followed.

We know that many colleges, departments, and individual faculty are able to make workstation-purchasing decisions for themselves. It is our opinion, however, that it is false economy to buy a cheap computer that does not work reliably, and that even "name brand" vendors sell low quality, low price machines. In the past, therefore, we have specified high quality components, included three-year on-site maintenance in the price, and selected vendors that have a good local maintenance record. There have been problems in the past with companies going out of business and leaving university customers without warranty maintenance. You may want to consider these points in your purchasing decisions.