Also from UB: https://universitybusiness.com/capital-campaign-strategies-you-may-be-missing/?highlight=harriet%20meyers

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Rent or lease equipment?
One way to make a potential capital investment more feasible is to shift it to an operating expense. Richard Gaumer, the founding principal of consulting firm Academic Innovators, was previously the chief financial officer of a small liberal arts school that was starting a new health sciences program. Purchasing the research and laboratory equipment would have cost several million dollars, he says. In addition, the school wanted access to updated equipment on a regular basis.
Instead of making a capital investment, the administration leased the equipment for hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. “We got new equipment for about $550,000 per year, and it was always new technology,” he says.