We are Microsoft. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

– Bumper sticker

An e-mail appeared in thousands of students’ mailboxes recently, urging students to complete a survey, which ends tonight. The survey was from the Computation Advisory Committee asking about a software agreement.

Iowa State wants to enter into a $300,000-per-year agreement with Microsoft for software. The survey’s gist was this: “Do you want to pay a Microsoft tax?”

Of course, that isn’t what it said outright; it asked more innocuous questions about the “opportunity.” Options for question three revolved around the percentage students should pay if the rest was rolled into mandatory computer fees. Question four was the next step, asking which service should be cut if the agreement was paid for with student fees – or if the fees should be increased. The best questions, though, were the ones unasked.

How much does this agreement offer for Mac users? What about those whose computers cannot run Windows XP? Those who don’t have a computer in their room?

The answers, in order: Office for Mac, less than those who can, and none at all. In short, the CAC is asking how much students should pay for things not everyone will receive or be able to use.

Just look at the list. Visual Studio is for programmers. FrontPage is for Web designers not smart enough to use GoLive or Dreamweaver. Three are related to Office.

This agreement is far from beneficial. If students fees are increased, all students are being forced to pay for items they may not want, need or be able to use. If other services are cut, computer labs get hit and are not upgraded as often as they should be. That hurts everyone who uses the labs, home computer or not.

Is it that hard to see Microsoft’s transparency in this? It’s very simple – Microsoft wants to finalize its rule of the world, it’ll do it one campus at a time if necessary, and universities will pay for the privilege. If it gets enough, perhaps it can finally implement the subscription-based software it’s been itching to foist upon the public. And the universities couldn’t say a thing, because they sold their souls to Microsoft for 300 grand a year.

Microsoft cannot lose, and students cannot win. How long would it take before the university said, “We have such a great deal with Microsoft, why should we support anything else?” Similar situations have happened too often to ignore.

This supposed service isn’t actually going to help that many people. Take out the Mac and Linux users, older computers, and students without computers, and there’s less of a pool to fish in. In addition, a majority of the software on campus is obtained from four sources – original CPU purchase, the Microcomputer Product Center, legal Internet purchases and StrangeSearch, not necessarily in that order.

In the first, if fees are raised, students will be forced to pay for the software twice, once in original purchase and once in fees. For the second, it’s already on the campus. The last, admit it – StrangeSearch serves one other major purpose besides transfer of porn and movies, and that’s obtaining hundreds of dollars’ worth of software at will. Click, drag, boom! Ready to install. Why would students even pay a nominal cost for software when they have this?

Especially when, according to CAC director Ann Thompson, one option is charging $5 “media cost” for a CD. When CDs can be made for less than 50 cents, that’s excessively high, and many students with StrangeSearch and a CD burner wouldn’t stand for it.

If the university considers this agreement, it should offer alternatives, especially for Mac and Linux users, or at the very least offer equal support. If Windows XP is given out, don’t ignore Mac OS X and Linux variants. The University of Iowa is including Mac OS X in a similar agreement. CodeWarrior should be given to/supported for programmers with Macs since Visual Studio isn’t an option. For Office, include StarOffice and AppleWorks as alternatives. The latter is even available for Windows and can save in Microsoft program formats. And don’t make it so projects have to be in Word format; continue to allow true universal standards like PDF and Rich Text Format.

If you haven’t already, fill out the survey today. Tell the CAC that you will not pay the Microsoft tax. Student fees are high enough without being sold to companies, especially when a proven monopolist is involved.

Jeff Morrison is a sophomore in journalism and political science from Traer. He is a copy editor for the Daily.