Why don't Universities provide staff/post-graduate with stationery? When I worked in industry,
I had unchecked access to a huge stationery cupboard.
As did hundreds of other employees.

Full of useful things like:


Files, folders, binders
coloured pens, mechanical pencils, markers
BlueTack, bull dog clips, coloured masking tape
index cards, A3 sketch books
postage paid envelopes


and the list goes on. We got some more exciting stuff as it was Agile company.

A friend of mine working for the tax office had similar access to stationery, though without the extra Agile arts and crafts supplies. She did get all the pocket calculators she ever wanted, though.
I'm sure some companies even treat USB drives as disposable.

Point being in industry, the disposable tools you need to do your job were provided to you.

What I have found recently working as a research assistant is that nothing disposable is provided. There is no stationery cupboard to raid.  When I need paper to throw together some math, I often end up using the back of a journal article I printed to read.

I can understand not supplying undergraduates, there are so many it is impossible to keep track of them. But there are a lot fewer staff/postgrads.


Is this normal for universities?

Is there likely to actually be a stationery cupboard (or fund) that I have just never noticed, and that I should ask my supervisor about?

If this is normal practice, what is the history/reasoning behind it?


It is not so much a issue of cost, it is tax deductible (for staff at least), and the pay (for staff) is generally high enough to dwarf these expenses, but of practicality.  The same cost vs payrate, and tax deductions are true in industry, but big (and small) companies judge the productivity gain of no one spending 20 minutes going down to the store to buy a pen worth the costs (I guess).
Stationary products, with the exception of prepaid postal envelopes, are not reimbursable from most grants and needed to be provided by the university as part of its infrastructure. How the university provides the stationary products is up to them, they can of a closet full of the required supplies, be willing to order them at no cost to grant holders, or provide grant holders with a sufficient portion of the grant overheads so that stationary products can be ordered. Every university I have studied or worked at has had a closet full of supplies and the office staff were willing to order special supplies within reason, but this doesn't mean other models do not exist. You just need to ask.