Recently, ISU students received an e-mail from the student-faculty Computation Advisory Committee asking for their opinion on the Microsoft Campus Agreement that was instituted last fall.

As the plan currently stands, all university-owned machines now have, and will be updated with, the newest versions of a standard suite of Microsoft software.

The goal of the e-mail survey is to generate student reaction to a possible amendment of the existing plan. An updated plan would make the Microsoft offer available to all student-owned computers as well as the university-owned units.

Sounds too good to be true.

Well, if you step back and take a good look at it, it is.

Microsoft’s offer, while bright and shiny on the outside, dredges dangerously close to the murky “monopoly” territory it has just escaped from. The computer giant defends it actions by rationalizing that only the students can benefit from this type of an arrangement.

Work done on any computer will seamlessly cross over to other workstations. Downloads of the most current versions of the software suite will be available for any ISU student at any time. And upon graduation that student may take his or her copies of the licensed software with them when they leave Iowa State. Those who do not graduate will have to delete the software from their computers.

Regardless of how many students obtain software under the program, it will cost approximately $300,000 for Iowa State to enroll. According to the CAC, this cost will be rolled over to students in the form of additional computer fees that would amount to about $25 per student. So even if an individual student chooses not to participate in the program, they will be paying for the “service” regardless.

So all Macintosh users, Linux users and the unfortunate students who have Windows platform machines that can’t run Windows XP already void themselves from this program simply because of their preference/limitations in operating systems.

And those without any personal computer now will have to pay even more for the new Microsoft software.

Not to mention the fact that anyone who purchases a new Windows platform PC will automatically receive the software suite that the plan provides.

In actuality what Microsoft is doing is limiting the perceived software opportunities available on campus by force-feeding students its technology and in turn creating lifelong Microsoft consumers. If new and better software comes along, the university will not be able to provide that to its students. Unless, of course, it’s Microsoft.

With such a dominating presence on campus, other viable software options will overshadowed and seldomly pursued. It’s too exclusive, and will not benefit all, as those in favor of the agreement are promising.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Omar Tesdell, Charlie Weaver