The State of Illinois regularly divests itself of millions of dollars worth of hardware on a yearly basis and you can obtain some of this surplus for your school if you work in a public institution.
For instance, each year ISU gets rid of literally hundreds and hundreds of computers. A recent visit to the ISU warehouse found several Macintosh and about 50 CPUs and monitors that were DOS-based 286 machines. A few 386 machines were also sitting around, and it won't be long before 486 and Pentium machines start showing up. Many of these computers have color monitors. Most of the machines were in perfect (if not slow) running order.
ISU cannot directly transfer used equipment such as this to your school. However, the State of Illinois can directly transfer used equipment from its huge warehouse in Springfield to your school, but you will have to -- as in all cases -- provide for the transport of the materials. There will be a small fee associated with equipment transfers, but it will be vanishingly small making the equipment near free.
To obtain additional information and to arrange for an inspection of available items, contact the following:
Central Management Services
Property Control Division
State Surplus Property
1923 S. 11th Street
Springfield, IL 62703
Ph: (217) 782-7786
Information obtained from Al Meister, ISU Property Control, on 8/13/98.