Category: FAQ

Contract Leads who receive research-related contracts and grants will continue to process them through the Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORGS). This procedure has not changed. ORGS will process all grants and contracts for Sponsored Projects.

Research contracts are highly technical in nature and require detailed negotiations and expertise in the area of funded research. As such, the Contract Lead must support the Office of Research and Graduate Studies in the timely negotiation and processing of contracts once an agency has agreed to award a contract to SMU.

The Principal Investigator/Project Director (PI) on a research contract is responsible for providing information related to the contract. The Contract Lead will work with the PI and Associate Director for Contracts to ensure the process flow remains smooth and the contract is completed in a timely manner. This may include working directly with the PI to answer questions related to the project or working directly with the Associate Director for Contracts to disseminate information between ORGS and the PI. The Associate Director for Contracts has primary responsibility for communicating with the agency and negotiating all research contracts.

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1. What office supplies will no longer by funded by the University?

The following items will not be available for purchase through Staples Advantage:

• CASE PAPER (cases of paper for ONLY letter, 3-hole letter, legal & ledger sizes): Email directmail@smu.edu with order details: size/type of paper, quantity, delivery location, org#.
• COMPUTERS & COMPUTER EQUIPMENT: Please contact your departmental technology support personnel or financial officer for guidance or email techsales@smu.edu for computer equipment requests.
• FURNITURE & CASE GOODS: For all non-construction-related furniture purchases contact Chanda Arnold at 8-4647, for recommendations.
• MEDICINE: Over-the-counter medications (i.e. Advil, Ibuprofen, etc.) are no longer allowed to be purchased through Staples Advantage or any other sources.
• PHONES & PHONE EQUIPMENT: Please call the OIT Help Desk at 8-HELP or email help@smu.edu with any phone equipment requests.
• PRINTER INKS & TONER CARTRIDGES: Please follow the instructions on the tag on your printer by emailing ImageNet@smu.edu with the following information for toner needs: contact name, printer model, printer location (building and room), org number to charge and tag number on the printer (if it exists)
• PRINTERS & FAX MACHINES: Please contact your departmental technology support personnel or financial officer for guidance or email techsales@smu.edu for printer or fax machine requests.

Office supplies purchased through other suppliers will not be reimbursed by SMU.

2. What items can I purchase on Staples Advantage?

Items on Staples Advantage are separated into 4 categories and include office supplies outside of the 7 categories listed above:

CORE ITEMS – Core items have deeply discounted contract pricing. Please select core items as often as possible since they are the most cost effective.

NON-CORE ITEMS – These have discounted pricing that is 5% less than items on the staples.com site.  Non-core items are an option if the product you need isn’t on the core list.

HARD-SUB ITEMS – Hard-sub items have an automatic substituted item that can be purchased in place of the item that was searched for.  For example, you can buy a box of markers, but only a specific type of marker. Hard-sub items cannot be purchased.

BLOCKED ITEMS – Blocked items cannot be purchased through Staples Advantage.  The University has established other avenues for purchasing these items.  You will see a pop-up message for blocked items with instructions on how these items should be purchased.

3. Who do I contact with specific questions about office supply ordering?

 You can contact the FO or AFO for your department/unit. The list can be found here.

4. What is the turnaround for orders from Staples?

Orders placed by Authorized Users before 3pm will be delivered the following day. Be sure to check with your Authorized User for their ordering schedule.

5. How much longer can purchases from Office Depot be made?

Beginning April 1, Staples is SMU’s official office supplies vendor and no more purchases should be made from Office Depot. If an employee makes a purchase at Office Depot on or after April 1, the purchase will not be approved and they will need to reimburse the university.

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Effective immediately, employees with desktop printers who need toner for their machine before a network printing solution is implemented in their area can only purchase a toner cartridge through ImageNet. SMU has negotiated a discounted rate for this purpose.  Going forward, toner will not be available for purchase through Staples.

To purchase toner for a personal printer during this transition period, follow the instructions on the printer tag ImageNet placed on the printer. If your printer has not yet been tagged, call the OIT Help Desk at 8-HELP or email ImageNet@smu.edu with the following information:

·  Your name

·  Printer model

·  Printer location (building and room)

·  Org number to charge

·  Tag number on the printer (if one exists)

Once network printing solutions are in place, ImageNet will no longer supply toners for desktop/personal printers and individual purchases will not be reimbursed.

Have you considered the time cost of asking employees to print to a printer located on a different floor or in a different part of the building?

During spring break, ImageNet Consulting began mapping and tagging all printers on campus. Upon completion of their assessment, they will give Campus Services and OIT a report showing the locations and types of printers in place today. They will also provide suggestions on how to optimize printing for each area.

ImageNet, Campus Services and OIT will review the reports and schedule a follow-up meeting with each department/area to discuss how to best optimize the printer hardware in their area to accommodate their printing needs. The layout of printers will be arranged to meet each area’s needs. No one should have to print to a printer located on a different floor from their office.

Local printers will not be removed without having good alternatives in place to accommodate printing needs and maintain business continuity. We want everyone to be able to continue doing their jobs in the most efficient way possible, placing printers in locations that provide for this, and yet still allowing the University to realize the savings of eliminating as many local desktop printers as possible.

Is the printer turn-in suggestion really a volunteer program, or will it be mandatory at some point?

Employees will not be required to turn in their personal printers, but can volunteer to recycle them through OIT by calling the Help Desk (8-HELP). If a faculty or staff member wants to continue using a personal printer, they must pay for the toner and any necessary repair services with their own personal money (not University funds). If a personal printer malfunctions in any way and is not covered by the campus under a special exception, it will not be replaced or repaired with SMU funding.

How will we address our need for color printing?

As noted above, ImageNet, Campus Services and OIT will review the reports from the assessments currently being conducted by ImageNet and schedule a meeting with each department/area to discuss how to best optimize the printer hardware in their area to accommodate their printing needs, including the need for color printing. A color printer should be accessible to all employees.

How will the new printing policy address security?

OIT will be working with ImageNet to be sure that every employee has access to a “secure release” printer. With secure release, faculty and staff can send files to a printer, but the documents will not print until the employee is standing at the printer and enters a code or swipes an ID to release the files. There will be a transition period for implementation of these secure release printers, and an employee’s local printer will not be removed until he/she has access to a secure printer.

Will the new printing and office supplies policies apply to remote employees (Taos, regional recruiters, etc.)?

Some remote offices will need to have a local/personal printer.   We will not remove local printers without having good alternatives in place to accommodate printing needs.   We will be working with the SMU-in-Taos campus and SMU-in-Plano offices later in 2015 to optimize the printers on those campuses after the Dallas main campus initiative is complete. Purchase of supplies for these remote offices will continue as they are today.

Can faculty and staff who opt to keep and maintain a desktop printer with their personal funds still purchase paper with University funds?

Yes. Standard size paper for SMU business use should be purchased by each area through Campus Services at a volume purchase rate.

Will faculty still be able to pay for toner out of research accounts?

Research accounts or restricted funds allocated to faculty are still subject to University policy, so toner cannot generally be purchased with those funds. Exceptions are where the donor or granting agency specifically includes in the funding the purchase of a printer and toner.

Why is ImageNet tagging personal printers if those will not be supported under the new policy?

There will be cases where a local desktop laser printer (not deskjet/inkjet) will be the best fit for someone – for example, in cases of isolated offices or specialized print functions (photo printers, check printers, label printers, signature printers, etc.) Hence, some desktop printers may be a part of the new printer layout.