Electronic Equipment Disposition Policy

1.0 Purpose

This policy is designed to minimize the potential exposure to Brown University and our community from damages that could result if equipment is not disposed of properly.

2.0 Scope

This policy applies to all members of the Brown University community who transfer or dispose of university-owned electronic equipment, including those devices purchased with grant funds. Equipment covered includes: computers, keyboards, monitors, scanners, fax machines, printers and other peripheral devices.

3.0 Policy

While all computing equipment obtained with Brown funds is ultimately owned by the Director of Purchasing, every piece of equipment must have an associated individual responsible for the equipment's proper care and eventual disposal. Some departments may assign this responsibility to the Departmental Computing Coordinator or the Departmental Systems Administrator.

3.1 Transferal of Brown Computing Equipment

Computing equipment capable of storing data must be "sanitized" before it can be transferred to another Brown user, whether within or between departments. Note that Brown Purchasing's policy forbids the transfer (sale or donation) of computers to anyone not affiliated with Brown.

The transferring department is responsible for the proper sanitization of its equipment as outlined in CIS's recommendations for data removal. For the purpose of this policy, sanitization means a data purge or erasure using a three-pass binary overwrite method at minimum. For equipment that cannot be sanitized via this method, all data must be deleted or the device reset to factory defaults (e.g., some cell phones). 

Each department is responsible for ensuring that equipment leaves the department following proper protocol, as outlined in Purchasing's document Disposition of Brown University Surplus Property. The Office of Sponsored Projects must be notified of equipment transfers involving changes in ownership, location or condition by submitting the Inventory Control form located on the Forms section of the Purchasing department's web pages.

3.2 Disposal of Brown Computing Equipment

When it has been determined that there is no further use of a piece of computing equipment, either within or beyond the department, the associated user or designee must arrange for its proper disposal, submitting a Computer Surplus Form for each piece of equipment to the Purchasing office.

While it is recommended that equipment leaving the department for disposal undergo a general data purge, a designated vendor will be responsible for the thorough destruction of data to prevent it ever being recovered by an unauthorized party.

3.3 Violations

Violations of environmental laws are to be handled by the Department of Environmental Health and Safety, in concert with Human Resources, Campus Life or other disciplinary bodies at the University, dependent upon the situation. Violations of IT Security requirements are to be handled through the same disciplinary channels, with support from the IT Security Office.

4.0 Related Documents

Disposition of Surplus Property policy (Word document) | Data Removal Recommendations | Policy Enforcement
Computing Policy for Brown University (home)

Questions or comments to: ITPolicy@brown.edu

Interim Effective Date: July 22, 2004
Final Version Date: March 8, 2005
Last Revised Date: December 07, 2007