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Inside Iowa State
January 8, 1999

ISU departments will get first option on surplus inventory

by Anne Dolan

Some changes this month in how surplus inventory is distributed at Iowa State should better serve the campus community. Beginning next week, the traditional Wednesday noon warehouse sale will be preceded by an "Intramural Transfer Day" from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday. The Tuesday events will be held in the purchasing warehouse on Kooser Drive; the first one is Jan. 12.

"The focus is going to be first on redistributing equipment and furniture within Iowa State, rather than the public sale," said Norm Hill, manager of Central Stores. "We want to give department staff a chance to glean what they can from the surplus inventory."

Hill anticipates other changes over the next six months. He said he and his staff are studying surplus policies from other large research universities to develop a system and policies that work well for Iowa State.

Long-term goals include being open more days each week; a system that indicates dates items may be purchased by the general public; and a Web site that lists furniture, lab equipment and computer hardware available for departmental transfer.

"This will be an evolutionary process, but we're trying to develop a system that is a good fit for Iowa State," Hill said. "We want this to be more user-friendly for university departments."

Central Stores employees Mark Ludwig and Randy Walker have joined the inventory office staff in 92-94 Physics. The phone number for asset recovery remains 4-5536. Gary Russell (4- 8634) will continue to oversee inventory control. Departments with inventoried pieces they don't use should continue to send the appropropriate form (Excess Property Disposal form) to 92 Physics.

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