STEP (Student Technology Equity Program) is a bold initiative to enhance student achievement and create more equitable opportunities for the CSU Bakersfield community by providing industry-leading technology.
CSU Bakersfield wants its students to have the tools they need to succeed throughout their college careers. We are excited to offer a variety of devices available on a first come first serve basis. Including Surface Go, Laptops, iPads, Chromebooks and connectivity devices such as hotspots. The device will be yours to use, for free, through the completion of your degree.
Contact Us
Email CSUBSTEP@csub.edu for more information. This is part of the CSUB Student Technology Equity Program (STEP)
Frequently Asked Questions
Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, students indicated a lack of access to a computer or mobile device as an obstacle in the way of their achievement. CSUCCESS (California State University Connectivity Contributing to Equity and Student Success) represents the CSU’s commitment to closing equity gaps and providing high-quality and reliable personal computing devices to support academic achievement.
During the pandemic, the CSU worked to address part of this challenge by investing more than $18 million to purchase more than 21,000 laptops and tablets and 10,000 mobile Wi-Fi hotspots for students, in addition to loaning out several millions of dollars worth of existing equipment.
Ongoing challenges of the pandemic require campuses to continue to deliver some courses virtually, posing persistent barriers to student success. These tools will help eliminate barriers and improve student success and equitable graduation outcomes, which are among the CSU’s highest priorities.
Students will need to connect to Wi-Fi to get on the internet, make calls and send/receive emails on their iPads. The iPads are Wi-Fi only models and are not equipped with cellular data service.
CSUB continues to expand outdoor and parking lot access, and the university is exploring new partnership opportunities for student access in public spaces. The CSU continues to work with both public and private partners to support the expansion of broadband access across the State of California.
The CSU will not be monitoring students’ day-to-day activities on the devices. However, each app has a privacy statement that explains how it collects and uses information.
That said, CSUB does monitor network traffic, and the mobile device management system will have the ability to alert IT staff if the student does something illegal or downloads an app not found by official means.
Students should refer to their campus’ Student Technology Agreement and Privacy Statement.