Northern Illinois University
Facilities Management and Campus Services
Division of Administration and Finance

Equipment owned by the university which has become obsolete, damaged, broken, worn out, or is no longer needed by a department should be surplused in a timely manner. To surplus equipment, the department should prepare an email and send it to the Property Control Department property_control@niu.edu. The email should contain the following information:

• NIU inventory number (if applicable)
• Description (i.e. secretarial chair, black, AllSteel, etc.)
• General condition or usability
• Reason for scrapping or surplusing
• Department name
• Sector ID
• Building and room number where the equipment is located
• Contact person's name and phone number
• The name of the Responsible Officer who oversees the inventory for the Sector

Property Control will then prepare an equipment transfer authorization form and arrange for the item(s) to be picked up. Surplus items that are in good condition will be stored in the surplus viewing area in Materials Management for repurposing within the university. Other items will be evaluated for either transfer to the state property control division in Springfield or for scrapping. View the scrap metal recycling policy.

Departments are responsible for the emptying of the contents of all file cabinets, storage devices, desks, furniture, etc. in advance of surplussing the items. Surplus should be stored in a manner so that it does not pose a safety hazard until it is picked up.

Computer Systems with Hard Drives

State of Illinois Public Acts (93-0306, 96-0045 and 97-0390) and the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees approval to implement a new policy effective 1-04-2010 requires that all hard drives returned with surplus electronic data processing equipment be wiped clean of all data and software by overwriting every track at least ten (10) times and certifying in writing that this process has been completed. NIU Property Control will only accept complete systems that have been certified by attaching a sticker (available from Property Control) with the Agency name, serial number, NIU asset tag number, application used to overwrite, Name of person overwriting the disk, date, and signature of the certifier. This sticker must be applied on the left-hand side of the face of the unit. Laptops must be labeled on the top side of its cover.

All the electronic data processing equipment that belongs with the system should be returned whole and intact. If the hard drive has been removed or is not operating and unable to be wiped clean, the certification label must state that the hard drive was removed or is not operable.

All requests for surplus electronic data processing equipment must comply with these procedures and be properly labeled before NIU Property Control and Materials Management personnel will be able to pick-up these items from the departments.

Surplus Item(s) Request

Property Control retains usable office furniture and equipment for redistribution within the university. These items are available to be seen by appointment only. You may submit a request to Property Control for surplus items you are looking for. Please email requests to property_control@niu.edu. We will monitor surplus to see if we can fulfill your request.