The University provides general office and data processing equipment and supplies to its faculty and staff. Only supplies and equipment which will be used for grant activities can be considered a direct cost and the expense must be clearly justified.

Local telephone service is a departmental administrative cost, however, if a phone or line can be identified exclusively with a project and will only be used for research or project activities, permission may be secured to charge the line as a direct cost. Examples of services which would meet the criteria are:

• a modem used for twenty-four hour collection of seismic data from around the country
• a hot-line reserved for participants on a research study

By contrast, providing a phone for a new member of a research team is an expense which the university should cover with unit funds.