Policy Manual

Since the University acquires and disposes of equipment on a daily basis, it is necessary to employ standard operating procedures when processing the various types of acquisitions, dispositions, and transfers.

1. Acquisition. Equipment acquisitions result from purchases, donations, receipt as federal government-furnished (federally titled) property, receipt as state surplus/excess property, or transfers from another institution associated with an incoming faculty member. Donated equipment values are reported to Capital Assets Management at the same value as the donation gift receipt. If there is not a gift receipt, acquisition value will be determined by the department based on objective justification. Acquisition value is defined as the price that would be paid to acquire an asset with equivalent service potential in an orderly market transaction at the acquisition date. (See also V-12.6 and V-12.7.)
2. Disposition. Dispositions of equipment result from declarations as surplus property, trade-ins, cannibalizing for parts, or transfers to another institution associated with a departing faculty member. Surplus property must be transferred to the Surplus Department for appropriate disposition. (See also V-12.8 and V-12.9.)
3. Transfer. Transfers of equipment between University departments can occur only when equipment will remain property of the University and the receiving department agrees to use the equipment for University purposes. Transfers of computer-related equipment must follow the Computer Data and Media Disposal Policy.
4. Loss. An asset is deemed lost only after a concerted effort has been made to find it. After two inventory cycles have been completed, the asset should be reported as lost to Capital Assets Management, using a disposal form.

The responsibility for providing Capital Assets Management with all required information for individual equipment inventory records lies with the department initiating the acquisition, disposition, or transfer of the equipment item(s). When submitting a requisition, departments must include the tag number(s) of any asset(s) being traded in. Federally titled assets require disposition to be received prior to the asset being valid for trade-in (see V-12.3 above and V-12.13c below). For other types of acquisitions, as well as for dispositions and transfers, Capital Assets Management has designed several forms to record the required information. These forms and the instructions for their completion are available at the following website: http://cam.fo.uiowa.edu/content/forms-and-instructions.