Units must communicate plans for disposing of a capital asset to Inventory Control, 255-9464 before its final disposition. Items slated for disposal must be offered for sale to the university community. Preference for purchases should be given as follows:

• Grants and contracts
• Other university units
• Employees, for personal use
• Local charitable organizations
• General public
  

Once Inventory Control has received the detailed information requested below, staff members will then post the surplus item(s) to an electronic bulletin board. Units are responsible for contacting Inventory Control regarding updating and removing item(s) from the bulletin board on a timely basis.

The notice must include the following:

• The bar code number or the item number
• Brief description of item
• Condition of item
• Quantity of item(s)
• The estimated current market value
• How the market value was determined
• Reason for disposal

The recommended method of removal from the university (i.e., sale, donation to another organization, trash, or use for parts.).

 NOTE:  In general, items will be sold to the highest bidder. However, there may be occasions when a unit's bid is given preference, even if it is lower than another.

Items will remain on the surplus list/CATS  (Cornell Asset Transfer System)  for one month.  Preferences for equal bids should be given as follows:

• Other university units, with preference given to grants and contracts
• Employees, for personal use
• Local school districts or charitable organizations
• General public

 Please Note: Contract college units that have surplus capital assets are required to offer to sell the surplus item(s) to ONLY contract college units for three weeks from the original posting date. After that date, the surplus item(s) are made available to any interested party. Units are responsible for applying the level of transaction authority used to purchase the asset when disposing of it.

For additional information and details on government and corporation-funded assets, Gifts-in-Kind, and the detailed procedures on the actual disposal (i.e., removing tags, and moving items to temporary storage), please refer to the "Before Disposing of Capital Assets" and "Disposing of Capital Assets" segments of the University Policy 3.9, Capital Assets .