What you get
Every full-time undergraduate is issued a university-managed laptop at orientation, chosen for the demands of their program — a heavier mobile workstation for engineering, manufacturing, and animation; a lighter machine for business, education, and the social sciences. It comes loaded with the operating system, security tools, and the licensed software your courses require, from the CAD and simulation suites to the statistics and design packages.
Why it is bundled, not optional
A single standard machine per program means an instructor can assign work knowing every student can run it, the help desk can support one image instead of a thousand, and no student is quietly locked out of a course because their personal computer cannot handle the software. The cost is built into tuition and fees, spread across the degree rather than landing as a first-week expense.
The refresh cycle
Machines are replaced on a set schedule — typically once during a four-year degree — so a senior is not doing capstone work on hardware from freshman year. Graduate students and long-track programs get a refresh timed to their plan. You keep the same machine between refreshes; it is yours to use for coursework, personal work, and everything in between.
Support and repairs
The Technology Help Desk in Halvorsen Library handles setup, software, and troubleshooting, and the on-site repair shop does warranty and accidental-damage work with loaner machines while yours is out. Because the fleet is standardized, most repairs are same-day or next-day. Report a problem early; a slow machine in week three becomes a crisis in finals week.
Your responsibilities
You keep the machine updated (updates are pushed but you have to let them install), you do not remove the management or security software, and you are responsible for damage beyond normal wear — the accidental-damage coverage handles a drop or a spill, not a lost machine or deliberate harm. Back your work up to the university cloud storage; hardware fails, and a dead drive the night before a deadline is not an extension.
At graduation
Options at graduation vary by program and machine age — some students keep the laptop, some return it, some buy it out at a depreciated price. The details are on the digital-learning page and in your final-term checklist. Either way, move your files off the university cloud storage before your account closes.
If a program-issued machine is not enough
Studio, lab, and shop courses that need more power than any laptop provides run on fixed workstations in the building — the render farm for animation, the simulation cluster for engineering, the color-managed stations for design. Your laptop is the everyday machine; the specialized work happens on hardware that stays put.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.