Posted May 10, 2004

Kent State’s current “Custom Agreement” with Microsoft expires June 30. This agreement covers all university-owned computers, and allows for the purchase of select software packages from the University Bookstore for $10-$20 per CD/package.

Effective July 1 the university’s new “Campus Agreement” with Microsoft will still cover university-owned computers, however, the software choices available will change, and prices will increase to approximately $75 per software package.

How the new Microsoft agreement will affect faculty:

• Effective July 1 if faculty members choose to require software in their courses not included under the new agreement (this currently includes FrontPage and Visual Studio.net), they will need to notify the bookstore well in advance, so that the item may be stocked appropriately.

How the new Microsoft agreement will affect students:

• The price of the software available under the new agreement will increase to approximately $75 per software package (as opposed to $10-$20 per CD/package under the “Custom Agreement”).
• Under the new “Campus” agreement, students will purchase the available software online from e-Academy (a Microsoft reseller). The University Bookstore will no longer sell software CDs directly to students.
• Currently, only Office 2003 (or Mac Office X) and Windows XP Professional products will be available under the new agreement (more programs may be added in the future).
• FrontPage and Visual Studio.net software will no longer be available for purchase under the new agreement. If needed, students can purchase retail academic versions of these products from the University Bookstore.

Between now and June 30, software is still available at the University Bookstore under the “Custom Agreement” for $10 per CD. Please take advantage of the current pricing and availability!