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Computer Upgrades for Instructional Faculty, FY2008–09
To: LSA Chairs, Directors, and Key Administrators
From: Ron Loveless, Senior Manager for Information Technology, LSA
Sent: 8 May 2008
Subject: Computer Upgrades for Instructional Faculty (CUIF), FY2009
I am pleased to announce this year’s program for Computer Upgrades for Instructional Faculty (CUIF) for Fiscal Year 2009. As was done in previous years, I am allocating your department a portion of the available funds based on the number of LSA faculty FTE's in your unit. The selection of the faculty FTE’s was based on data extracted on April 3, 2008 from the M-Pathways Human Resource Management System. The following U-M HR job groups were used to determine the allocation:
- Regular Instructional
- LEO – Lecturers I thru IV
- LEO – Adjunct Faculty
- Primary
- Supplemental Instructional
- Academic/Administrative Ungraded
- Supplemental Primary
- Emeritus/a (With a Teaching Appointment)
Your FY2008-09 CUIF allocation will be transferred at the same time as your budget allocation and will appear in your FY2008-09 Red Book. You can also review the allocation on the MRS, under Budget and Supporting Documents. The amount of your allocation and the list of faculty on whom your allocation is based upon are available on the Web at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsait/help/cuif.asp.
The CUIF program is designed to ensure personal productivity to LSA faculty in the groups listed above. These funds are not intended to provide all the computing needs for faculty members. Departments and individuals are encouraged to supplement the allocation with funds from other sources to meet needs which exceed the computer system provided in this allocation.
The calculation for the yearly CUIF allocation is based on the replacement cost of a faculty computer. The replacement cost is currently assessed at $1,300 every four years. The yearly CUIF allocation is simply the $1,300 divided by four, or $325 a year. This $325 is multiplied by the number of LSA faculty FTE (LSA % effort) by “home unit” to determine the unit allocation each year. The “home unit” is primarily determined by using the Appointment Department or the Instructional Department where available from the MAIS Human Resource Management System. For instance, in a unit with ten FTE at 100% LSA effort, the allocation would be “10 x $325” for a total allocation of $3,250. Likewise, for a unit with 10 Faculty FTE at 100 % LSA effort and 2 Faculty FTE at 50% LSA effort, the allocation would be 10 x $325 ($3250) plus 2 x $162.50 or $325 for a total allocation of $3575. For any unit with an allocation less than or equal to $500, the minimum amount allocated was set to $500. It is important to note that the CUIF funds are NOT divided across LSA units for faculty with split appointments. The entire allocation goes to the home unit.
The faculty on whom your allocation was based will receive no computer upgrade funding from any other unit under this program, but computer equipment purchased may be placed in the most appropriate work location for faculty with multiple appointments. Please note that you are not required to provide equal allocations to each faculty member for whom you are responsible. You are free to prioritize and allocate as you see fit. You should, however, be careful to ensure than no one has a computer more than four years old, as these old machines are difficult to support, secure, and maintain. Old computers, moreover, should be sent to Property Disposition, and not “handed down” to other faculty or staff, or allowed to be moved to a faculty member’s house. Old computers are a security risk for your department and the College.
As of January 1, 2007, all LSA computers are required to meet minimum operating system requirements. This requirement was mandated by computer security concerns. Computers running old operating systems such as Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Mac OS 9 are not permitted on the LSA network. For further details on the LSA Computer Security Policy see, http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsait/admin/lsasecuritypolicy.pdf.
I urge you, therefore, to give your highest priority to your faculty with the oldest computers. The newer computers running the latest operating systems can more capably provide protection against malicious software such as worms and viruses. The required minimum operating systems for all College workstations are listed in the table below. Consult with your computer support person to determine which version resides on your faculty computers.
| Computer Platform | Minimum Operating System Version |
Microsoft Windows |
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 |
Apple Macintosh |
MacOS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) |
Redhat Linux |
RHEL3 |
After addressing upgrades for your old computers, you may spend these funds on any hardware or software in direct support of faculty computing, including such things as faculty office or portable systems, software packages, shared workgroup printers, memory, processor, hard drive upgrades, and scanners. While shared workgroup printers are allowed with the CUIF funds, personal (single-user) printers are not allowed. However, funds outside of the CUIF allocation may be used for personal printers. Keep in mind that the FY2003 budget cuts eliminated support for personal office printers. Only shared workgroup printers will receive IT support involving repair. Additionally, your CUIF allocation may not be used to fund staff or student computing, either individual or in shared workrooms.
As you consider your computing purchases, you should consult with your department computer support staff, or consult with the LSA Computing Services Group (CSG) managed by Greg Beyer (gbeyer@umich.edu) at 734-936-3279. Some preliminary consultation with your computer support staff or the CSG will help to insure that new hardware or software will be compatible with existing LSA computer systems. For LSAIT’s recommended computer systems for faculty, please see http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsait/help/FacUpHdw.asp
The College and the University continue to aggressively pursue site licenses and volume discounts for commonly-used software packages for all supported platforms, reducing the need for individuals to purchase those licenses themselves. Please see http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsait/SWL for agreements available to LSA faculty. The University of Michigan has an agreement with Microsoft which provides use of Microsoft Office and several other software packages for faculty, staff, and instructional and research computer systems. Please see http://www.itd.umich.edu/microsoft for more details.
--Ron
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Ron Loveless (ronl@umich.edu)
Senior Manager for Information Technology
College of Literature, Science, And the Arts
The University of Michigan
Suite 1112 LSA
500 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI. 48109
734-936-7737
FAX: 734-647-8333