Royal Oak Tribune

OCC again offering free laptops to students

- By Anne Runkle arunkle@medianewsg­roup.com @annerunkle­1 on Twitter

Oakland Community College is once again providing Dell laptops to its full-time students in the upcoming winter semester

CC is using $1 million from the Coronaviru­s Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed by Congress in March 2020, to fund the program, said Chancellor Peter Provenzano Jr. OCC launched the laptop program in the fall 2020 semester to support students with their increased technology needs in a remote learning format.

The college provided 2,100 full- time students with laptops this current semester; up to 1,400 more laptops will be available next semester for new and returning students who register for 12 credits or more.

“We had a good response for our fall laptop program and have available funds to provide an additional 1,400 laptops for the Winter semester to students who didn’t participat­e in our Fall program,” Provenzano said.

To be eligible, current students must register for 12 or more credits in the winter semester. Registrati­on for Winter semester is open through Jan. 10.

Laptop supplies will be distribute­d to applicants on a first- come, firstserve­d basis beginning the week of Feb. 3.

In addition to the laptops, Provenzano said the college will provide all students with access to necessary software programs specific to their winter semester course needs through OCC’s online software system, part of OCC’s Virtual Desktop Infrastruc­ture.

Additional informatio­n:

• Students will be notified if they qualify for a laptop after Jan. 26.

• Laptops will be sent directly to qualifying students from Dell beginning the week of Feb. 3.

• Students may keep the laptop after the winter semester for use in future OCC and other college courses or for personal use.

• OCC’s VDI system will use data on each student’s winter semester schedule to automatica­lly provide access to the appropriat­e virtual software required for their classes.

• Students who require Internet access will be provided a designated area on each OCC campus to use the college’s Wi-Fi network.

Eligible students should link to OCC Cares Laptop Program on the OCC website to complete the Laptop applicatio­n.

Students with additional questions should email careslapto­p@oaklandcc.edu.

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