Effective January 1, 2008, SPU has revised its policy regarding the provision of cell phones.  Due to the requirement to comply with IRS regulations regarding personal use of institutionally owned devices and the difficulty and time intensive manual labor required to identify, track and determine personal versus business use, the University will no longer provide cell phone service to individual employees.  In short, it will be up to the individual employee to claim business use based on appropriate documentation of personally owned cell phones, either as a reimbursement from the University, or a business deduction on their personal tax return.

Certain employees may qualify for the university to provide an institutional stipend to cover the presumed business use of personal cell phones and service.  The stipend will be considered taxable income to the employee.  The level of cash subsidy (stipend) will be determined by a person's job duties as it relates to cell use and access.  Guidelines to categorize cellular use as mandatory, beneficial or incidental are determined by the area Vice President.  The stipend includes the cost of service plus equipment.

Updated cell phone policies, procedures and guidelines are available on the SPU User Policy Page.

As a courtesy to SPU faculty, staff and students, Verizon Wireless extends a corporate discount for Verizon service individually purchased by students and staff. Please contact CIS for the current discount being provided and how to add your phone number of the discount calling program.

Using Smartphones and PDA's

If your cellular phone or PDA supports Microsoft Windows Mobile (version 5.0 or later) with Active Sync, some generic instructions are provided at Email Clients - Mobile to assist with configuring the proper server name and credentials. Please be aware that many of these devices might have unique and specific setup requirements and that the CIS HelpDesk has only tested these instructions with a limited number of devices.

Some SmartPhones don't support Microsoft Windows Mobile (version 5.0 or later) but are able to connect to the SPU Exchange servers through IMAP protocols. For instructions on configuring IMAP to access your SPU email, go to Email Clients - Mobile.

Carrier Choices and Calling Plans

The choices from cell phone carriers vary widely, both in type of service and level of coverage.  While CIS doesn't limit the choice of vendors, we are happy to discuss your individual needs and point you in the right direction.

Accounts & Passwords (for help with email credentials for client configurations)
Email Clients (for more discussion about email clients and server configurations)