In all honesty, the first thing you want to do is to get this generally unavailable admin to okay putting BOINC on these machines. Otherwise, the first time something goes "wrong" with any of them, this admin will find BOINC there, see that that is what has changed, blame it, remove it and then come down on you for installing it. It is normally wise to get the okay of whoever "owns" machines before installing anything on them. However, since you describe this admin as generally unavailable, I suspect that they are responsible for quite a bit. You might want to think about offering to take on some level of responsibility for these machines at the same time. Keep in mind that you're "just a phd student" and think long-term. It may be your supervisor who assumes some responsibility that they delegate to one of their phd students.