By: Janice Bitters

Beginning July 1, the University of Minnesota will no longer offer a student discount for the Microsoft Office Suite.

Currently, students can buy the software for $40 from the Office of Information Technology.

Following approval by the Board of Regents last week, the University will discontinue the discount because the number of students purchasing the software has declined in recent years, said Bernard Gulachek, OIT’s associate vice president.

“When we first entered into and began selling this software, Microsoft was pretty much the only one selling this software,” he said. “If you do a Google search today, you’ll come up with probably 10 products that are free.”

The University spent $750,000 on the licensing agreement last year, Gulachek said.

“It no longer makes any sense for the University to be spending these kinds of funds on a site license agreement, when there isn’t the volume that there used to be,” he said. "That money could be more easily used towards something that is more important to students.”

Computers purchased by the University will not be impacted by the change, including those bought for use by faculty and staff.

Gulachek said OIT is working with Microsoft to create a more “student-friendly” agreement before next year.

The agreement approved last week stipulates that, if another agreement isn’t made, students who have already purchased the suite from the University would need to uninstall the software by July 2014.

“That is a worst-case scenario,” Gulachek said. “I have every confidence in the world that we will come to an agreement that is more student-friendly.”

Last week, the regents also heard a presentation of a study by Huron Consulting Group that outlined various areas the University could improve on in terms of administration spending.

One of the suggestions in the study was to cut down on underutilized services, which Gulachek said would include the suite software.