January 16, 2008 — The University of Virginia has concluded a new campus agreement with Microsoft, licensing several of the most commonly used Microsoft products for use by full- and part-time faculty and staff.

All University employees in the Academic Division (Agency 207) are now entitled to software licenses for the Windows operating system, the Microsoft Office suite and some other Microsoft software titles, all at no additional charge to individuals or departments.

Employees can upgrade their operating systems from Windows XP to Vista, or obtain a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 or the soon-to-be-released Office 2008 for the Mac. The agreement also covers Apple users running the Windows operating system on their Macintosh computers.

Under a work-at-home provision of the new agreement, Microsoft Office (for Windows or the Mac) can even be installed for U.Va.-related work on an employee’s personal laptop or home computer for only the cost of the media ($10 to cover the cost of the software CD).

"The Campus Agreement does not replace U.Va.'s already existing Microsoft Select Agreement; it simply supplements it," noted Tony Townsend, chief technology analyst and head of software licensing at the University. "The older Select Agreement is still in place, too, because it covers some Microsoft products not included in the Campus Agreement — such as programming software and back-end server operating systems — and because it enables non-Agency 207 employees at the University to buy software licenses for University-owned computers at an educational discount."

A primary difference between the new Campus Agreement and the older Select Agreement is that the new agreement licenses software based on the number of University employees, rather than the number of University computers — "a subtle but important" difference, said James Hilton, U.Va.'s vice president and chief information officer.

"This new agreement recognizes the demands facing 21st-century employees and the trend toward greater mobility in the workplace," he added. "U.Va. faculty and staff sometimes use more than one computer to do their jobs, or work from many locations. With the new work-at-home provision, plus the inclusion of Mac users running Boot Camp, Parallels or virtual machines, we’re providing the U.Va. workforce with tools to get the job done, wherever the employee is physically located."

To take advantage of the new campus agreement, Academic Division employees have two options:

• Download your new software from U.Va.'s secure campus distribution Web site, at no charge. E-mail tony@virginia.edu to request access to the secure download site. No PTAO (Project Task Award and Organization) number is needed, as long as you’re an Agency 207 employee.

• Visit Cavalier Computers in the U.Va. Bookstore to pick up your software on CD. That way you have a backup copy, should your computer crash. The software will cost just $10 to cover the cost of making a hard copy on CD.

For more on the agreement, visit www.itc.virginia.edu/licenses or contact Tony Townsend, tony@virginia.edu or 982-4713.