COLLEGE PARK, MD (May, 2014) Educational Technology Services (ETS), with generous supplemental funding from the dean’s office, successfully concluded the pilot year of the Obsolete Equipment Reimbursement Program (OERP).
According to Steve Pragel, ETS director, “The goal of this program was to maximize the use of a limited pool of resources to allow College of Education departments to replace critical faculty and staff computers to a wider scale than they could have otherwise.”
The benefits extended not only to the departments, but also to the IT support staff in ETS, where analysis showed that older computers generally take up a disproportionate amount of human resources. The recent campus security breach, and resulting focus on data security in general, only served to highlight the benefits of computers that can run supported operating systems. Department chairs made the final decisions on which computers to replace, and how much to spend towards their match.
Nearly 40 outdated computers were turned in for recycling or Terrapin Trader, and more than 25 new computers were purchased. Much was learned in data collection from this first year, and will be applied to the program as it continues.
Said one department business manager, “We look forward to participating again next year. This was a great help to us!”