A Fringe Benefit

It is nice when as a result of teaching classes you are able to take advantage of fringe benefits. This is even more true for the adjunct professor as often times these benefits are held for full-time employees of the college or university. I recently received a very nice e-mail from the college where I teach (me and the rest of those who teach classes for this institution).

The college recently switched to Vista and has updated to Microsoft office 2007 (It is my understanding that this is the only office package compatible with 2007). They sent out an e-mail basically stating that they know teachers do work from home and there is a need for documents to be compatible from one machine to the next. As a result, they are providing instructors with a free copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 upgrade. I should say free to the instructors, not free to the college.

I realize they do not need to do this and I, for one, am very glad and appreciative of their willingness to do so anyway. I frequently do work from my home computer and while I could survive without this upgrade, it will certainly make my life easier.

The college is requiring each instructor to sign for the copy, which makes a lot of sense and they are letting us know that it will only work on one machine, so you have to decide (if you do work from more than one computer) on which machine to install it. Still it is a very nice move on their part. It would not make any sense, or be fair to expect the college pay for each instructor to put it on more than one machine. In fact, honestly, I do not think it is fair to expect them to provide each instructor with a copy. Still, if they are willing, I am appreciative and I will take advantage of it.

Thank you to the college for considering the needs of the instructors, all of them.