Faculty Computing Program

The Faculty Computing program is an initiative by the Office of the Provost that is administered locally by the Dietrich School Office of the Dean to ensure that all faculty have a desktop or laptop personal computer (PC) to accomplish all tasks required of each faculty member.

The program ensures that the computers for faculty members are replaced every five years. More sophisticated systems may require a different time frame for replacement. All computer configurations offered to faculty are up-to-date in terms of processor speed, memory, hard drive storage space, and necessary support peripherals, excluding personal printers. The options include a choice of standard configurations geared toward faculty. Configurations come both in desktop or laptop from Dell or Apple. Alternative configurations of these Dell or Apple machines are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Individual faculty may request an alternative Dell or Apple configuration if demonstrated technology requirements are presented. In such cases, cost-sharing may be required depending on the additional expense of the alternative proposal. Such requests should be submitted by the Department Administrator to the Dietrich School Director of Data Analytics & Technology Solutions, Amy Wildman.

Please note that certain site-licensed and protected software packages made available free of charge to faculty by Pitt IT will not function on laptops that have no network connectivity. In order for these packages to function properly, a laptop needs to be connected to the University's network or connected to another network provider and authenticated via the University's SSL VPN service. In many cases, it may be more practical for faculty to purchase individual copies of these protected software titles. These restrictions should be taken into account when considering a laptop PC.