Microsoft Office 365 for Students

What is it?

Office 365 installed applications include: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access.  (Publisher and Access are only available on PC.)

Who can use it?

All current and active SJU students are allotted a Microsoft Office 365 account at no additional cost according to the Email and Data Storage Policy.  As such, there is a grace period of one year for only students that have graduated.  For example, if you earn your degree in May of 2022, you will have access until May of 2023. For most undergraduates, this means you get 5 years of access to Office 365.  If you leave the University prior to graduating, you will not be entitled to the one year grace period after your departure.  

Where can I access this service?

You may browse to portal.office.com, sign in with your SJU username and SJU password.

  • Click the Install Office button
  • Click Office 365
  • Click Install Office Apps
  • Click RUN

You may download and install Office 365 on as many as five devices.

If you prefer, you may call 610.660.2920 for assistance or stop by the Technology Service Center (TSC) in Science Center 129 and we can assist you with the installation.


What happens at the end of my grace period?

**The University recommends that students store data in their Google Drive.  The University does not support Microsoft OneDrive or the data that is stored there.**

At the end of your grace period, your Saint Joseph's University account (i.e. student@sju.edu) will expire and you will no longer be able to access the O365 portal at portal.office.com.  This means you will no longer be able to download and install Microsoft Office.  It also means that any documents saved to OneDrive will no longer be available for syncing.  Prior to the end of the grace period,  if you have any documents in OneDrive, we encourage you to copy (or sync) any important documents out of O365 onto your personal computer:

  • Your own personal computer
  • Your own (non-SJU) Microsoft account, for example: myname@outlook.com.
  • A third party storage provider of your choice 
     

 

How does OneDrive work, will I lose my documents after I graduate?

OneDrive is an online storage and synchronization service (like Google Drive or DropBox) that has the ability to synchronizes between your personal computer and the cloud.  So, there are several possibilities:

  • PC Scenario 1 "Locally Saved, No Synching":

You download and install Office 365 on your PC, everything works fine, but you never opt to login to Office 365.  In this scenario, your documents are saved locally to the PC.  No synchronization will happen and OneDrive never comes into play.  Account deactivation has no effect on your documents.

  • PC Scenario 2: "Caching and Synching but no local OneDrive folder"

You download and install Office 365 on your PC, everything works fine and you do sign into Office 365 using your SJU identity.  In this scenario, there is a cached local copy on your PC that is also synched to Office 365 OneDrive.  However,  you will not see an explicit OneDrive folder or application.  Account deactivation will cause the synching to stop, but will not affect your locally cached documents.  You will want to resave them properly into your documents folder.

  • PC Scenario 3 "Caching with an explicit OneDrive Folder and App"

You download and install Office 365 on your Mac, you also download and sign into OneDrive as part of the Office 365 package. Everything works fine.  In this scenario,  you have an explicit OneDrive app (and folder) which is your synch folder.  Account deactivation will cause the folder to stop synching--but you will still have access to your locally stored documents and your locally created OneDrive folder.

  • Mac Scenario 1: "Locally Saved, No Synching"

You download and install Office 365 on your Mac, everything works fine, but you never opt to login to Office 365.  In this scenario, your documents are saved locally to the Mac.  No synchronization will happen and OneDrive never comes into play.  Account deactivation has no effect on your documents.

  • Mac Scenario 2: "Caching and Synching, but no local OneDrive folder"

You download and install Office 365 on your Mac, everything works fine and you do sign into Office 365 using your SJU identity.  In this scenario, there is a cached local copy on your Mac that is also synched to Office 365 OneDrive.  However,  you will not see an explicit OneDrive app on your Mac.  At the end of your grace period, account deactivation will cause the synching to fail, but will not affect your locally cached documents. Still,  you will probably want to resave them properly into your documents folder.

  • Mac Scenario 3:  "Caching and Synching with an explicit OneDrive Folder and App"

You download and install Office 365 on your Mac, you also download and sign into OneDrive as part of the Office 365 package. Everything works fine.  In this scenario,  you have an explicit OneDrive app (and folder) which is your synch folder.  Account deactivation will cause the folder to stop synching--but you will still have access to your locally stored documents.