Sure, but I highly doubt they are making policy where they work. I don’t think most employers would be happy about some random researcher not only plugging in a flash drive from home, but using it to install unapproved software (a full OS at that).

Is it alright to go around wiping the OS off of other people’s computers?

• is what your comment reads like to me.

To be clear: each machine generally needs a computer to be permanently plugged into it. Generally the computer belongs to the university. You’re not plugging in your own personal laptop into the machine. Saying to install Linux on these computers is essentially tampering with the university’s electronics and IT will be very unhappy that you did that.