1. Definition - Chargebacks are situations where a RAC subunit (primarily the USSG, but also potentially the Stat/Math Center) is "hired" to perform work for a campus customer. The standard distinction between consulting and work for hire is as follows. Consulting is when we offer a customer advice about how she or he should do something. Chargeback work is when a UITS/RAC staff member is doing the work, on behalf of a customer. Consulting is free; chargeback work is not.

2. Purpose - RAC subunits are designed primarily to deliver baseline system and consulting services. Chargback work is done as a service to departments with intermittent and small needs for system administration, stat/math applications, or for programming work. The availability of chargeback services should not be used by IU departments to circumvent the need for computing support staff and expertise within the department. The delivery of anything beyond relatively short periods of staff services is not permitted since it would seriously impact RAC's ability to deliver its primary baseline and consulting services. In particular, RAC is not able in general to offer the following services:

1. Build or upgrade large, departmental servers.
2. Work on departmental systems for which there is not a designated systems administrator within the department, nor do routine system system administration for an individual/department in lieu of the department hiring their own systems administrator.
3. Install large databases (Sybase/Oracle/Informix etc.).
4. Repair hardware. This service is supplied at IU/Bloomington by the Electronics department of the Physical Plant, and at IUPUI by the Maintenance and Repair Services.
5. We may or may not be able to install highly specialized third party software. Also, we cannot provide consulting support for such software. You are encouraged to work directly with the software vendors for problem resolution.
6. Services which are primarily physical labor (such as physically moving or rebuilding a departmental system).
7. Chargeback work is done only within a given unit's area of service responsibilities. For example, the USSG cannot handle Windows98/NT support when installing Linux on a multi-OS system.

3. Customers - RAC subunits offer chargeback services to IU's academic departments, and those departments only.

4. Rates - For 1 to 8 hours of chargeback work, costs are $65/hour. From 9 to 16 hours of work, the hourly rate is $85 per hour (these rates are effective from July 1, 2002). Sixteen hours of chargeback work is the limit per department per semester. To encourage any department paying for more than 10 hours of USSG chargeback work per semester will be offered free attendance for one departmental staff person (who is currently not a LSP) in the Unix Education Certification program.