Technology Services July 26, 2007

Policy for Life Cycle Process

Life Cycle Vision:
St Mary’s College of Maryland has approved the concept of a College-wide Technology Plan as opposed to individual departmental technology plans. An integral part of this Technology Plan will be Life Cycle Purchasing (LCP). With LCP, computers will be distributed with an emphasis given to the end-user’s requirements; maintenance will be paid for, and the College will benefit from a plan that helps keep costs in check and keeps pace with the changing and evolving world of technology. The goal of Life Cycle Purchasing is to upgrade computers in a maximum of every four years. Repair and maintenance of computer/printer equipment will be handled by Campus Technology Support Services through the Life Cycle budget.

1. Life Cycle Budget:
Computer purchases and repairs will fall under a Life Cycle Technology Plan. The Director of Campus Technology Support Services, in consultation with the Academic Resource Committee (ARC) and the Campus Information Technology Committee (CITC), will manage the distribution of funds for:

• Purchase of new and/or replacement equipment as directed by the Technology Plan
• Maintenance and memory upgrades of existing equipment: and,
• Purchase and maintenance of campus-wide supported software on the network

Purchases will be made in accordance with the annual Technology Plan. The plan will be developed by Campus Technology Support Services in consultation with the Academic Resources Committee (ARC) and Campus Information Technology Committee (CITC) and will be approved by the President’s Cabinet. The purchasing of computers will be based on information obtained from user survey responses and will be equitably distributed throughout the College. If funding is inadequate for any given year during this plan, the entire plan will be amended accordingly.

The Life Cycle Plan will not cover the costs of computer equipment for newly approved positions or programs. These initial costs must be paid by the departmental funds allocated for the new position or program through the CP process (see section 2.b).

2. Acquisition of Computers and Hardware Upgrades

a) Current Users:
Academic users seeking upgrades or replacements should send requests through their instructional technologist to Campus Technology Support Services. Administrative users should have their supervisor or designee send their approved request to Campus Technology Support Services. If the request is not part of the scheduled Technology Plan, it must go through a petition process (see section 2.c). Maintenance requests should be sent directly to Campus Technology Support Service’s Helpdesk. Lists of currently supported hardware and software may be obtained from on the Colleges website.

b) New Positions and New Hires:
When hiring for a new position for which a computer is needed, the hiring unit must budget the cost of the computer into the cost of the new position. Campus Technology Support Services must be notified and funding must be available from the hiring unit. When replacement positions are filled, the new hire will be allocated the computer that was assigned to the position. If any changes/upgrades are required to meet the needs of the new hire, a request may be made to Campus Technology Support Services using the mechanism described in section 2.c. If the request is denied, an appeal may be made using the criteria listed in the appeal process (see section 2.d.). All purchases are property of the College and are managed through Campus Technology Support Services.

c) Petition Process:
Users wanting an exception to the Technology Plan must submit a request in writing. Requests must include justifications for the change based upon the following considerations:

1. How important/necessary is the purchase with respect to users doing their jobs?
2. Justification as to why a user should be an exception to the scheduled plan.
3. Cost effectiveness/savings, if any, of approving the petition.
4. Potential consequences for not approving the petition.

The Director of Campus Technology Support Services will review the petition and make recommendations for any warranted changes to the Technology Plan within one calendar month of receiving the petition. If the petition is denied, users may wish to appeal the decision.

d) Appeal Process:
If a user wishes to appeal a denied petition, the process works as follows:
Send the appeal through your Department Head to the Director of Campus Technology Support Services. If the Director of Campus Technology Support Services does not approve the appeal, he will bring the appeal to the President’s Cabinet for discussion within one month.

e) Grant and Gift Funding:
If a College employee is preparing a proposal for grant and/or gift funding involving computer hardware/software, Campus Technology Support Services should be consulted. Campus Technology Support Services will assist the employee in identifying hardware/software that is supported by Campus Technology Support Services or hardware/software that will work best on the campus network. Employees who desire to purchase specific models/types of computer hardware/software as part of a grant or gift should submit a request to the Director of Campus Technology Support Services to have such equipment added to the approved support list. Proposals to accept gifts of technology equipment and/or software should be also be presented to the Director of Campus Technology Support Services with a request to have such equipment added to the approved support list.. In any case, if the request is denied, the equipment and software will not be supported in any way by Campus Technology Support Services

f.) Responsibilities:
Director of Campus Technology Support Services and Campus Technology Support Services are responsible for implementing the College’s Technology Plan and administering Life Cycle Purchasing. The Director of Campus Technology Support Services is solely responsible for managing the Life Cycle budget.