As the screen above the Information Technology Services desk boldly proclaims, ITS has a wealth of updates, wireless services and the latest technology to offer UR students, faculty and staff.

With all these promises of new technology, the UR student may find him or herself wondering where the old computers go after they are no longer useful to ITS.

According to Director of Technology, Phil Ponella, the answer is rather simple. “We like to make sure they go back to the college.”

Since the university has paid for these computers and their ensuing updates, the computers are returned back to UR hands once ITS can no longer use them.

“We turn over around fifty to sixty machines each year,” Ponella said.

Of the estimated two hundred computers under ITS use, nearly a quarter of them will be updated this year.

Ponella says that recently many of the computers have been turned over to the College Writing Department, but that they can also be given to other departments where they are used by professors and faculty.

A few machines are left over each year, usually a significantly small number. These computers are turned over to the local school districts to help their students.

Where the computers go from the campus are a matter of campus policy that goes beyond ITS’s reach. At least a portion of these computers do go to benefit the community.


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