With many of us going through the initial round of testing speeches and possibly projects last week, chances are you had some interaction with one or more of the computer labs located on campus. If that’s the case, you probably noticed the new Microsoft operating system (OS) updates that rolled out seemingly overnight. After over eighteen months of research negotiations and eventually contract agreements Penn State was able to implement updates to Windows and Microsoft Office applications across numerous campuses, including our own here at Penn State Behrend.

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Over the summer, the school’s six-year licensing agreement known as the Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions was set to expire as of June 21. With this deadline looming, negotiations were finishing up during the spring semester over whether Penn State would stick with Microsoft, implemented by the software distribution company Kivuto, by updating to Windows 10, or adopt a new OS and its subsequent applications instead. According to the University’s website, a comprehensive study conducted by Penn State’s IT department examined numerous college campuses and consulted with several experts throughout the 18-month probe to ensure the new contract would best fit the needs of its students and faculty. Inevitably the school came to an agreement with Microsoft that they felt would best meet the needs of students faculty and staff University-wide.

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Due to the new agreement, faculty and students also have access to software updates for their personal computers. By visiting pennstate.onthehub.com and using your current WebAccess username and password, those active in the Penn State community are able to update their OS if they use a Personal Computer (PC) to Windows 10, and their Microsoft Office applications on both Mac and PC laptops and computers. Other updates include Microsoft Home Office and Business as well as JMP pro and SAS 9.4 Workstation for a nominal fee, and several other programs utilized by students and faculty. The hope is that to implement these software updates for students and faculty university-wide in order to keep both groups up to date with the professional software of the day and to provide a similar experience across the curriculum when it comes to technology we use to work.

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It’s important that students and faculty alike take advantage of the new software updates, which if purchased on their own can cost just as much as the textbooks we lug around every day. The software update itself is listed on Microsoft’s website for $120, and that does not include the new updates for applications we use every day such as Word PowerPoint OneNote and Excel. Quoting a professor from freshman year, “take advantage of everything this school provides, especially if it’s free!”

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While the updates are welcomed by many, some trivial problems had students hung up last week. One of the most trivial being how difficult it is to simply log off. Where it used to be a one-step process, it’s not a three-step process to log off hidden under the user’s name, making it that much more difficult to print off your paper and still make it to class on time.

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Technology is used in some facet by practically every profession today, especially the ones most of us in college aspire to. By taking advantage of the “free” software updates we get as students we also gain the ability to practice with the software and applications that potentially will be apart of our everyday lives moving forward.