Re: mobile phones Mike (Spanky) McCallister 28 Apr 1995 15:28 EST
If the mobile phone is a tool for research interactions in the field and is the best and most cost efficient way, then it is defensible. There is a lot of resistance to paying regular office/lab types of telephone costs, but in this case the name "phone" is what's throwing you. Yeah, you need to be careful of personal use, but that's not new. On my campus I have to struggle to get mobile phones OK'd simply because they are generally not suppllied to ANY employee of lesser rank than out Top Dogs (Pres, VP's, etc). I have some people who travel extensively in really remote and depressing places who wanted phones for safety- road hazards, etc. But if your grant funded people are all tooling around with car phones and such and the regular faculty gets snitty about it, then that's an equity/PR problem. Like many peopl REALLY need one of these things anyway. You end up chained to them like yuppies and their camcorders on vacation. Spanky --------------------------- Original Message --------------------------- One possible complication is that utility expense (including telephones) are increasingly being viewed as an indirect cost rather than a direct. I'm not certain if mobile phone charges themselves are strictly prohibited (perhaps someone else from the group will have a comment on this), but if they're not, you will have to thoroughly justify why mobile phones are required for the grant work and not for personal use or to be just more available. ------------------------------------------------- Evelyn J. Ford, Research Administrative Manager ASRI Neurosciences Research Center Allegheny Campus, Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A. 412.359.4475 voice 412.359.4499 fax xxxxxx@singer.asri.edu ------------------------------------------------- On Fri, 28 Apr 1995, Becky H. Patterson wrote: > I would appreciate your help concerning the purchase and use of mobile > telephones from federal funds. I have several biologists that want mobile > phones to use while doing field work. I have a cryptic note that says that > it is prohibited to use grant funds. > > Is this true? > > Thank you in advance for any info. > > Becky > > Becky Hayes Patterson > Administrative Research Assistant > The University of Southwestern Louisiana > P.O. Box 43610 > Lafayette, LA 70504-3610 > phone: (318) 482-5811 > Fax: (318) 482-6195 > e-mail: xxxxxx@usl.edu > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mike McCallister, Ph.D. Director, Sponsored Programs Southeast MIssouri State University One University Plaza Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 314-651-2196 fax 314-651-2001 xxxxxx@SEMOVM.SEMO.EDU >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Delbert says, "Someday, Baby. Someday, Maybe. Maybe Someday, Baby."