Various schools and other entities HAVE become MUCH stricter about giving stuff away. At least in MA, where I live, tax reasons actually have a lot to do with it. Schools and other governmental entities are exempt from sales tax. Private individuals, of course, have to pay. Thus transferring stuff that was bought by the state to individuals, even when that stuff as been written off as no longer having value, is seen as illegal under the strict interpretation of tax law used by the University of Massachusetts system. Thus the stuff can't be given away and usually can't even be sold, so (for the University of Massachusetts), it just goes to a secure warehouse at the "main" campus, where it just sits for all of eternity. What I wouldn't give for a day in that warehouse...
