9.51 Academic Computing Policy
Computing services have become an increasingly important part of the research
process in the modern university. As research techniques continue to become
increasingly sophisticated and demands for voluminous amounts of data and
complex statistical manipulations of that data continue to increase, the
demands upon the academic computing services of the University of Northern
Iowa can be expected to accelerate. Because the support of faculty and student
research is consistent with the mission of the University of Northern Iowa,
an attempt is made to provide funding to departments and individuals to
support the research of these faculty and students which is appropriate
to their academic goals.
However, funds for academic computer services are limited and have not,
in recent years, kept pace with the demands placed upon them. One area which
taxes the available funds is the provision of computer services to research
sponsored by agencies outside the University of Northern Iowa. Federal agencies
and private foundations often support various UNI faculty and students whose
work has requirements for computer usage time. There have been circumstances
in the past in which computer usage for sponsored research has come from
departmental budgets or has been listed as the university contribution to
the required matching funds for a given project. While the pursuit of funds
for sponsored research and development is encouraged by the University of
Northern Iowa, it seems inappropriate that the very limited funds available
for faculty and student academic computing services be utilized to subsidize
grants made by the federal government or private foundations.
The following policy steps are hereby adopted.
1. All federal and foundation grant proposals for projects which will require
academic computing services, programming, running time, etc. must request
funds for such services as a part of the direct cost line item budget of
the project.
2. Projects which require computer support but do not include these expenses
as a direct cost in the budget must receive not only usual computer and
academic review, but also special permission from the academic administration
of the university.
3. Academic computing services are not to be considered appropriate for
cost sharing or cost matching purposes nor is it appropriate to provide
them on a non-reimbursable basis for sponsored research and developed projects.
4. The Grants and Contracts Administrator will review the expense budget
of all projects to ensure that required computing services are covered by
income from the contract.
5. If the work scope of a project is not modified to the degree that academic
computer services are no longer a part of the project, no university internal
budget transfers to an existing grant may be made from the category of academic
computer services even if permission is given to do so by the granting agency.
Exceptions to the above policy may be made only in circumstances in which
a grant or contract requires a direct cash match on the part of the institution
and the following conditions are met:
1. The project is demonstrated to be clearly consistent with university
goals and short- and long-term objectives. Except in the most compelling
cases, this demonstration must include evidence that the expenditure for
which the grant is acquired must have been in the future funding pattern
of the university. In other words, it is a circumstance in which the university
was committed to expend its own funds on the project and the grant or contract
can be considered to be subsidizing an activity which the university would
have undertaken with its own funds.
2. Evidence is provided that other avenues of cost sharing and cost matching
were explored with the agency and that these other avenues will not meet
the requirement in and of themselves.
3. That the authorization to use academic computing funds as cost sharing
or cost matching be approved by Academic Computing, by the Vice-President
for Administrative Services or his designee, and by the Vice-President for
Academic Services or his designee.
The Grants and Contracts Administrator will be responsible for implementation
of the following administrative policy steps:
1. The Grants and Contracts Administrator will inform the Director of Academic
Computing Services when a grant or contract is finally accepted by the university.
He shall provide the name of the project director, the Business Office account
number and the computing budget for the project.
2. No budget transfers in an existing grant may be made from the category
of academic computer services even if permission is given to do so by the
granting agency unless the work scope of the project is modified to the
degree that such services are no longer a part of the project.
3. The Grants and Contracts Administrator will inform potential project
officers of the procedure by which exceptions to stated policy must be reviewed
for authorization and will administer that process.
It is felt that the regulations subscribed herein will be necessary if,
in the face of increasing participation in federal and foundation grant
and contract programs, the academic computing service is able to maintain
its current level of service to faculty and students of the University of
Northern Iowa. These steps are considered necessary to prevent the draining
of academic computing resources from internal research projects and instructional
areas in order to subsidize sponsored research projects.
Vice-President for Academic Affairs | 
