Hundreds of thousands of students at city colleges are benefiting from the free use of Microsoft Office.
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito unveiled the services at Baruch College Monday afternoon.
The speaker says the $500 million donation from Microsoft to CUNY will give students the ability to succeed in business and the global workforce.
The suite of interrelated desktop applications include programs like Excel, Powerpoint, Word and OneNote.
"So with this initiative, we're addressing the skills gap in the job sector in two different ways. Important steps, to be sure, that the city's employment sector continues to grow, and we will also help more New Yorkers get the necessary skills in order for them to get to work in well-paying and cutting-edge jobs," Mark-Viverito said.
"If you would have asked me before what Microsoft OneNote was, I probably would have said something about notes. But because I was able to download it for free and I was able to play around with it, and I found that I was able to record and sync my notes onto any of my mobile devices," said Christopher Wong, a Baruch College student.
CUNY faculty and staff are also able to utilize the services.