Why don't Universities provide staff/post-graduate with stationary?

When I worked in industry, I had unchecked access to a huge stationary 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 stationary, though without the extra Agile arts and crafts supplies. She did get all the pocket calculators she ever want 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 not stationary 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 much few staff/postgrads

• Is this normal for universities?
  
  
  
  • Is there likely to actually be a stationary 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 noone spending 20 minutes going down to the store to buy a pen worth the costs (I guess),.