Students may soon have greater access to a standard suite of Microsoft software.

The ISU Computation Advisory Committee is considering a campus-wide agreement with the Microsoft Corporation.

The Computation Advisory Committee sent out student opinion surveys via e-mail last week to gain input from ISU students on this initiative. The surveys are due by Wednesday.

“We don’t want to just jump into this agreement, but rather find out how students feel about this,” said Peter Sorensen, Computation Advisory Committee member.

“Our goal is to represent the students and spend their money how they see fit.”

Last fall, Iowa State signed an agreement with Microsoft to provide standard software for all university-owned computers.

A new proposal would expand the contract to provide all student-owned computers with a package of Microsoft software, including Office Professional – Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel and Access – Office Macintosh, Windows XP, FrontPage, Visual Studio Professional, Office 2000 Interactive and Back-Office Client.

Under the proposed contract, ISU students could download all current and future versions of the Microsoft software and retain the programs on their machines after graduation. Students would be required to delete the software from their computers if they left Iowa State before graduation.

“Our goal is to provide an opportunity for students to have the most recent software available for use,” said Sorensen, senior in agronomy. “In the long run, this will be very beneficial for students.”

To enroll in the agreement, Iowa State would pay $300,000 of students’ computer-fee money annually.

Last week’s electronic surveys ignited strong opinions on both sides of the Microsoft debate.

“We just limit our options when we do exclusive deals with Microsoft,” said Luke Howell, off-campus Government of the Student Body senator. “I want students to realize this is an exclusive deal, and it’s really limiting our university.”

Many students do not use Microsoft products, he said, and this agreement limits students from exploring alternative systems such as Linux, which may provide greater benefits to students than standard Microsoft software.

If Iowa State enters into a campus agreement with Microsoft, the university is just prolonging the corporation’s grasp on technology, Howell said.

“Do we really want to help aid the Microsoft giant, especially when they’re involved in an antitrust suit?” he said. “We’re limiting the technology of the entire industry if we do that.”

Students should contact their GSB senators and tell them what they think of the pending Microsoft campus agreement, he said.

“Students should take a stand on this issue,” Howell said, “especially because we’re a university of science and technology.”