Equipment – Items or maintenance that aid an organization in completing their primary purpose.
UPAC will consider funding expenses that aid an organization in completing their primary purpose. These expenses include costs associated with equipment to aid in this process. If an organization is requesting the purchase of equipment, they must submit a request for equipment purchase form detailing what type of equipment is desired and why this equipment needs to be purchased. Specific policies regarding equipment funding can be found in Section 3.4 of the UPAC Requestor Handbook. Here are the steps to request funding for equipment expenses:
1. Sign out an Equipment Request Form
Drop by the UPAC office in 208 HUB to pick up an equipment funding request form. You’ll need to make sure that you’re not past your requesting deadline date, and you’ll spend a few minutes going over the process of filling out the request form with a UPAC member in the office.
2. Fill out your Equipment Request Form
UPAC will consider equipment expenses to purchase or maintain items that aid in completing an organization’s primary purpose. UPAC requires each requested equipment expense to be substantiated by one primary (preferred) bid and one comparable bid.
On your request form, neatly list the item name, as well as the vendor, per item rate, quantity, and total cost for both the preferred and comparable bids for every item that you’re requesting from UPAC. You should only list items on your form that you are requesting from UPAC. If you require more lines to list all of the items you plan to request, ask for an equipment request supplemental form in the UPAC office.
Once you’ve listed and totaled all of the expenses you’re requesting, use the lines to the right to prioritize each item in order of your most important expenses. Also, at the top of the back of the request form, you’ll find six questions regarding your equipment expenses that you’ll need to answer and attach to your completed budget.
Along with your completed request form, make sure to attach the following information:
- Answers to the six equipment request form questions,
- quotes from the preferred vendor for each item, and
- quotes from the comparable vendor for each item.
If you have questions regarding obtaining University-approved storage space to store your equipment, you can contact Dylan in 237 HUB to talk about available storage spaces.
3. Submit your Equipment Request Form
Once you’ve completed filling out your Equipment funding request form, bring it back to the UPAC office to review it with a UPAC representative and ensure that your budget is complete. After verifying that your request is still within your deadline date and that your request is complete, the UPAC representative will accept and process your budget, and the Committee will review your request on a first come-first serve basis.
4. Receive your Allocation Decision and Seek Reimbursement
It typically takes about three-to-four weeks for a budget to be processed and brought up for review. After that time, you’ll receive an email from upac@psu.edu with an RSVP request to one of our Tuesday or Thursday night allocation meetings. At your meeting, you’ll discuss your equipment and budget with a Sub-Committee of about five-to-seven members with a Sub-Committee Chair leading the meeting and one adviser guiding the group. After your meeting, you should hear back with an email from upac@psu.edu containing your allocation letter with the Committee’s allocation decision. A copy of your allocation letter will be sent to the Associated Student Activities (ASA) office in 240 HUB within two-to-three business days, when allocated funds will be placed into your restricted “10” account. From there, you can seek reimbursement or purchase orders for your equipment expenses from the ASA office. Any other instructions or stipulations will be listed on your UPAC allocation letter.
Equipment Request Form Best Practices
Below, you’ll find an example of a clear, concise completed UPAC equipment funding request. Use it in conjunction with the attached “Equipment Request Help” page to fill out your UPAC funding request.